The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has announced that Vietnam’s number-one male badminton player Tien Minh may be suspended from badminton competitions for two years.

After the HCM City Badminton Federation “forgot” to register Tien Minh as Vietnam’s representative at two important badminton events in the UK and Switzerland, Vietnam’s top male player was “compensated” by being registered to take part in the Open India Badminton Tournament (March 24-29), the Super Series competition in Denmark (October 20) and in France (October 27).

However, since he didn’t undergo drug tests in the UK and Switzerland, Tien Minh may be suspended from badminton tournaments for two years, under the rules of the BWF.

Players in the world’s top 50 like Tien Minh (15^th) are responsible for declaring their living place, training site, tournaments they take part in and other information every three months to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Players who don’t declare the information three times within 18 months or declare wrong information will be suspended.

Tien Minh’s declaration in the first quarter 2009 said that he would participate in the tournaments in Birmingham (UK) and Basel (Switzerland).

The HCM City Badminton Federation has recently been criticised for not registering Tien Minh for these events, due to which he could lose up to 4,440 points, in addition to being suspended.

It is said that since these incidents, Tien Minh has considered going to Singapore to play badminton.

VietNamNet/ANTD