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KUALA LUMPUR – The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) and high-performance centre Malaysian Badminton Academy (ABM) are now separate entities, said BAM president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria.
Having previously brought up plans to separate the governing body and ABM, he said the decision was approved during today’s BAM council meeting and takes effect immediately.
“The objective is to ensure that our operation is commercially sustainable, while still focused on our core, which is producing world-class players.
“BAM as a whole has two main objectives. One is commercial, to find enough money and sponsors to support the high-performance centre. Second is to produce world champions and ultimately win an Olympic gold medal,” he said at a press conference held in ABM here today.
Norza said the split would allow better focus on the two main objectives, adding that the structure of ABM will now be run by the National Badminton Foundation, a publicly listed company established by BAM.
He added that the high-performance centre’s chief executive officer Michelle Chai, along with BAM’s high-performance director Tim Jones, will be responsible for the players and technical aspects, while BAM will focus on governance.
“We will have a board of trustees, 60% of it will be independent members while the rest will be BAM representatives.”
Norza added that youth development director Datuk Misbun Sidek needs to lay out a structured plan on beefing up the junior teams, and with the high-performance team, set their targets for presentation to BAM.
For independent shuttlers coming to ABM for training, Norza said it is up to Jones and those at the high-performance centre to ensure that things go smoothly.
Meanwhile, BAM also awarded French Open champions Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah RM37,500 for being the country’s first women’s pair to win the title.
“We have not failed to give incentives to our players. We always put their welfare as top priority because we would not be here without our players.
“We tell them (shuttlers) that if they perform, we at BAM will find ways to reward them,” said Norza. – The Vibes, November 26, 2022
