KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 24 — The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) have refuted a newspaper report claiming that the contracts of three national coaches will not be renewed.

The national badminton governing body said in a statement today that they were still in the midst of conducting an evaluation of their coaches and players.

“A thorough evaluation of the coaching staff and the players is still ongoing in line with the streamlined and revamped coaching structure,” BAM said.

A local newspaper today reported that the contracts of men’s singles coach Tey Seu Bock, women’s singles head coach Indra Wijaya and mixed doubles head coach Paulus Firman won’t be renewed.

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Last month, BAM secretary-general Datuk Kenny Goh announced that the annual year-end performance review, which was supposed to be completed earlier, had been postponed until this month after doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky, who only reported for duty on December 1, requested for time to evaluate the players and coaches.

Kenny had also said that everyone — from the management to the coaches and also the players — needed to be held accountable. He also did not rule out the possibility that some heads would roll after the review.

BAM recently found themselves the centre of attention following a dispute with the country’s top men’s singles player Lee Zii Jia.

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On Friday, BAM made a stern decision not to register Zii Jia for any international tournaments for a period of two years starting from January 18 after the 2021 All-England champion decided to quit BAM and become an independent shuttler.

To date, Zii Jia has not issued any statement regarding the matter (BWF rules state all entries for international tournaments must go through national associations). — Bernama