KUALA LUMPUR: The WhatsApp conversation between Zulfadli Zulkiffli and Tan Chun Seang turned out to be among the main evident that exposed their match-fixing activities.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) today slapped a 20-year ban on former world junior champion Zulfadli and 15 years on former Thomas Cupper Chun Seang after finding them guilty of match-fixing.
Zulfadli and Chun Seang were also fined US$25,000 (approximately RM98,000) and US$15,000 (approximately RM59,000) respectively.
Based on the full hearing report on Feb 26-27 in Singapore by the three-man independent panel, which consisted of James Kitching, Sylvia Schenk and Annabel Pennefather - both Zulfadli and Chun Seang were found to have committed match-fixing in six different tournaments - London Open GP Gold (2013), Dutch Open GP (2013), Korea Open GP Gold (2014), Macau Open GP (2014), US Open GP (2014) and Brazil Open GP Gold (2016).
The report stated that the WhatsApp conversations between the two shuttlers (mainly in Bahasa Malaysia) were extracted from their mobiles phones. The conversations covered a span of 15 months between Sept 27 (2013)-Dec 12 (2014).
"As described by Andy Hines-Randle (BWF Integrity Unit manager), the messages were extracted by a company specialising in forensic extraction of data from mobile telephones. The messages were largely in Malay.
"After identifying selected messages, the BWF contracted a company to translate those messages from Malay to English for the purposes of the investigation. They were subsequently split into four separate conversation files, marked as “Conversation #1”, “Conversation #2”, “Conversation #3”, and “Conversation #4”," read the report.
In reaching their decision, the three-member independent panel found that Chun Seang had committed 26 violations of the 2012 Code of Conduct in Relation to Betting Wagering and Irregular Match Results while Zulfadli committed 27 violations of the 2012 Code of Conduct in Relation to Betting Wagering and Irregular Match Results and four violations of the 2016 Code of Conduct in Relation to Betting Wagering and Irregular Match Results.
The shuttlers' match-fixing activities first surfaced when the BWF, through their whistle-blower system, received a report from a player, who claimed that Zulfadli had approached him to manipulate a match at the 2016 Brazil Open.
However, Zulfadli clearly wasn’t satisfied with the outcome of the hearing. When contacted yesterday through WhatsApp, the 25-year-old asked back whether he was being victimised or accused.
"I am recovering from shock due to the decision - will certainly do a press conference in a day or two. It is time I told my side of the story.
"Fortunately the BWF did not have the power to pronounce death sentence - or else I am sure they would have preferred that option,” said Zulfadli.