BAM NEEDS OVER RM55 MLN A YEAR - TENGKU ZAFRUL

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 10 (Bernama) -- The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) needs more than RM55 million a year to cover the operating costs of the sport's governing body.

BAM president Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the costs include remuneration for players and coaches, expenses for participating in tournaments and organising domestic competitions.

"For now we are okay. To sustain us we need about RM55 million a year but the amount is for now and going forward it will be more," he said at a press conference after the first BAM Council Meeting of the year here today.

Regarding last year's expenses, he said BAM had spent RM54 million as of Nov 2025.

"The two big expenses are players and coaches remuneration, tournament participation, which is about slightly more than half of the cost besides tournament hosting," he said.

Tengku Zafrul also realised the fact that BAM needed to strengthen their brand in an effort to attract more sponsorship in the future.

Meanwhile, he said that the meeting discussed support for the junior players including an increase in allowances and the provision of racket string allowances (worth RM400,000 in total).

“As per BAM secretary-general Datuk Kenny Goh’s paper, the allowance is around RM400 to RM600.

“That’s what they get and maybe it’s not enough so we will increase it to up to RM1,000 for all the players currently per month,” he said.

He also said the meeting discussed the review of the salary rates of local coaches.

Regarding the performance of the players in the 2026 Malaysia Open which is currently underway at Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil, he admitted to being disappointed that there were players who were expected to advance further but did not succeed in doing so.

“In terms of the organisation of the tournament is done very well. I mean if you look at the spectator crowd, there are not many complaints.

"In terms of players' performance, of course we will hope that more players are involved in the final stages especially semi-finals and finals but we still have one men's doubles (Aaron-Wooi Yik) who is still involved," he said.

Aaron-Wooi Yik who are the country's sole representatives in the semi-finals of the 2026 Malaysia Open are scheduled to fight for a slot in the final against the Indonesian pair, Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Shohibul Fikri.

The 2026 Malaysia Open which started on Tuesday ends tomorrow.

-- BERNAMA