BAM spends RM54 million, hints shuttlers' contract details will be revealed [WATCH]

KUALA LUMPUR: As part of its move towards transparency, the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has revealed that it spent a whopping RM54 million last year, with more than half of the funding going to the remuneration of coaches and players, as well as competition costs.

BAM president Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz, who chaired the national body's council meeting at the Axiata Arena today, said the statistics for the first 11 months of last year as a complete figure will be announced soon.

He said that BAM's total sponsorship is slightly more than RM50 million a year and he believes that it may need at least RM55 million next year for sustainability.

"The figures are still being finalised because the accounts have not been closed yet. But our total expenditure for the first 11 months is close to RM54 million," said Tengku Zafrul.

"This is the overall figure — all costs included. The two biggest expenses are players and coaches' remuneration, as well as tournament participation, which together account for slightly more than half of the total cost.

"Another major expense in our budget is tournament hosting. The Petronas Malaysia Open involves very high expenditure but of course, there is revenue generated from it as well.

"As for this year, our income is already more than RM50 million, but to sustain, we need RM55 million a year.

"This year, we are fine. Next year is different because we have many plans to implement, so we need to drive things further.

"And we must also thank the government for their support, whose support amounts to about RM5.5 million."

Although BAM did not reveal the annual income and contract details of the players and coaches, Tengku Zafrul hinted that it will be made public soon. Going forward, BAM will be more transparent on contracts, as in many sports, compensation or contracts are usually disclosed.

"We want to be transparent because you will cast doubts about integrity, governance and also consistency lah, and we want to avoid that. Also important that the rakyat knows how much the players earn," added Tengku Zafrul.

"There's always a misconception that the (some portion) prize money from tournaments goes to BAM account. No, and it's 100 per cent to the players.

"We don't take a single cent and in fact, we top up (20 per cent) for (them) winning selected tournaments."

Despite the increasing expenses, BAM does not want to leave its 68 national juniors in the lurch, as their monthly allowances will be increased from RM400–RM600 to RM1,000 beginning from the second quarter of this year. This amounts to a total of RM816,000 annually, and Tengku Zafrul also revealed that they are inviting corporations to adopt junior shuttlers.

Besides that, BAM will also absorb the racquet stringing costs of the junior shuttlers, with an additional RM100,000 allocated for restringing services, bringing the annual total to RM400,000.

"They are getting RM400 to RM600. and that is not enough. This means they can have some saving of up to RM300- RM400 for the future," added Tengku Zafrul.