Danish superstar shuttler Anders Antonsen shocked the world, announcing the sacking of his coach Joachim Persson after news of Persson placing bets on matches came to light.
After the Japan Open withdrawal, Antonsen revealed his decision to terminate his coach’s contract immediately after the shuttler found out that Persson was placing bets on other matches in the tournament.
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.”
Notably, as per the report from the Indian Express, Joachim Persson was involved in a scandal back in 2019, for which he was banned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) for a year and a half. Although he didn’t agree with the decision of the BWF at the time, calling it “totally ridiculous.”
“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.
“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.
