Top Danish shuttlers including former world champion Viktor Axelsen would not be allowed to train at the national center and would have to fund their travel and accommodation for international tournaments till an agreement is reached between the players and Denmark Badminton Union (DBU) over sponsorship and subsidies, badmintonplanet.com reported.
The previous agreement between the professional players, including Hans-Kristian Vittinghus, doubles specialists Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen and others, and DBU expired on November 30, 2018 and though negotiations have been going on for a while between the two parities, no agreement has been reached yet.
Despite the agreement, signed in 2013, Denmark had dropped five of their top players from the 2015 Sudirman Cup after the players refused to sport jerseys with the logo of DBU’s sponsors as it was a direct competitor of their personal sponsor.
Vittinghus, who is representing the players in the negotiations, said “At the beginning, I felt that the negotiations were going well, but they are now escalating the conflict into this level. We are disappointed.”
Though not much details have emerged on the reasons of the deadlock, it seems players are not happy with the funding they receive from DBU.
Since the Badminton World Federation rules do not allow any player to enter their tournaments without the national federation endorsing the entry, it would be interesting to see whether DBU also blocks the entry of the top players in the new season if the stand-off isn’t resolved by then.