Badminton: Anders Antonsen terminates contract of his coach who he claims was betting on another match in the arena

"As a player competing in the BWF you're obligated to report such behavior as soon as it comes to your knowledge," Antonson wrote on his Instagram account

Denmark's Anders Antonsen in action. (Reuters)

World No 3 men’s singles badminton player Anders Antonson said on Saturday that he is terminating the contract with his personal coach Joachim Persson with immediate effect after claiming that he had spotted the latter placing bets on matches, albeit ones not involving him.

The Danish star, who has been as high as world No 2, took to Instagram to reveal his decision so as to avoid speculation around it. “The other day I by coincidence got to see my coach placing bets on one match taking place in the arena. As a coach of one player competing in the BWF, this is a violation,” he wrote.

“As a player competing in the BWF you’re obligated to report such behavior as soon as it comes to your knowledge. Failing not to report such information would be a violation on the BWF code of conduct. I want to distance myself from this behavior and therefore the only option has been to report and terminate our agreement.”

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This is not the first time that Joachim Persson is in the middle of betting controversies. in March 2019, Persson was banned for 18 months for betting violations relating to “failing to disclose details of an approach, not cooperating fully with investigations conducted by the BWF and not fully disclosing information to the BWF following a formal request to do so” as per the world governing body. The former world No. 10, who was a left-handed player from Slagelse, Denmark, achieved his highest ranking in 2009 and was a two-time runner-up at World Superseries events (Denmark Open in 2008 and the French Open in 2010). He also won two European Championship medals, a bronze in 2006 and a silver in 2008.

In response to a query from The Indian Express, the BWF said they are “aware of a statement made by Antonsen, as well as the nature of its contents, and can confirm that we have received an official report on this incident. As this is now a matter for the BWF Integrity Unit, in line with BWF’s standard procedures for managing integrity-related matters, BWF is not able to comment further while the matter is being investigated.”

Antonson has been working with Persson since the backend of 2022 during a low phase of his career, struggling with injuries, but started to turn things around from the start of 2023, reaching the semifinals at the All England Open that kickstarted a remarkable turnaround.

“Joachim has been my only coach since I went independent. He has been a huge part of my comeback story. We have traveled the world together. We did amazing and accomplished multiple tournament wins together. I’Il always be grateful for the time we’ve spent,” Antonsen added.

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“So obviously I’m absolutely gutted and sick to my stomach that this is the way our ways end. I would like to clarify that I don’t know anything about the duration of this behavior. I know about one single incident of placing bets on a random match – but that for me is enough. Also the match didn’t include myself,” he added.

Antonsen had started 2024 on fire, winning back-to-back titles at the Malaysia Open and Indonesia Masters, before clinching the European Championships title in April. At the Paris Olympics, he was seen as a potential contender for the podium but fell at the quarterfinal hurdle against Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia who went on to win bronze by defeating Lakshya Sen.