I am surprised that nobody has commented on the article on the home page of this site which reports on the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision against Punch Gunlan and the IBF on the RBF issue. This was an attempt by Punch Gunalan to replace the RBF as the Russian IBF member in a conspiracy of lies and bullying. He now stands convicted of negligence, violation of IBF rules, the Olympic Charter and, of course, natural justice. He should resign and let the sport recover from his reign of incompetence and bullying. http://www.badmintoncentral.com/badminton-central/content/view/111/2/
i wonder if anybody have tried to guess what his motives are? why does he want to replace a whole national body with another one? there must be some hidden agenda behind all these, or may be bad blood somewhere. either way, i am glad that the RBF have won the arbitration.
IMHO its not bad blood, just hidden agenda. Punch Gunalan should do the honorable thing and resign but I am sure he wont.
I think it is money speaking. I suspect that the new organisation promised to bring more money to the table than the RBF (and where might they have got it from?, you might askor some TV deal that they can control through their network of contacts. It is very worrying and smells very badly indeed. You wonder who has been made an offer they cannot refuse.
punch gunalan and IBF why should punch gunalan resign ? the court's verdict shall be respected. Assuming punch gunalan is resigning and the president is resigning who will don the mantle. what can be a hidden agenda in this whole thing - dont think so
I know I am ignorant and that I do not understand Gunalan well, but I am going to say this anyway. There is no main motivation, his ego is driving him to do all these things. He thinks he can do whatever he wants and he is a confirmed megalomaniac. I read things in this discussion forum about him but I was really angry after I read kwun's article about the RBF. The man must resign, it is as simple as that. He is bringing this beautiful game into disrepute. I think he is just trying to show off to others how powerful he is as VP and that is really selfish.
Well, I presume I must say a word as I'm from Russia and I know a bit about what is happenning (although a very small bit). First of all, I must give you a warning. To ALL of you! Pls do not be hasty to judge! Neither Punch nor RBF opponents. The matter IS VERY complicated and should be tackled very carefully! You see, we've experienced (well, we ARE still in the thick of it currently) a very tough period of our history recently and it affected everything including badminton. Yes we had RBF. Yes it was formed long ago and it was organized the way that can be called democratic in yr countries (even if what we had when we were part of the USSR could not be called a democratic society), although partially controlled by the State of course (quite normal here and it has sense after all, as it was financed by the State). But. For the past 10 years it all rotted. Mr. L. who is the head of RBF learned quickly the benefits this tough period granted (the lack of State control primary) and did nothng but earned money enjoying power. I have friends among pro-s and I know what I'm talking about. He insured his position as an 'eternal' RBF president (by appointing and controlling those who is in charge to ellect the president), he had total control for the grants from the State (we can't rely on sponsor's support here) and he simply destroyed all the opposition... Lemmy say it this way - he became a Very Bad Guy. He IS a mighty person, unfortunately for us and the russian badminton he used his might not for the sport but for his pocket. . There were those who did not like the situation. They tried several times to revolt in late 90-ies. But it was impossible to gain controll over RBF from the inside (see above) and they failed to beat it by making a competetive organization - NFBR (I dunno the reasons why they failed). However a couple of years ago the situation attracted the attention of another mighty person with ambitions to win the russian badminton for himself. Mr.S is a very reach and powerfull russian politician who found the way to claim RBF to be legally null and void (a slight neglect in the RBF papers in fact) and this (and of course his connections) helped him to make the State to recognize another organization as a sole badminton promoter in Russia. NFBR which he simply made his own. This automaticly left RBF with no money from State and worse... The majority of players (and nearly all of top russiann player) had been quite unhappy with RBF actions (Mr.L simply disqualified those he didn't like and those who refused to give him money/or to forget about prise-money when representing Russian Federation in tournaments) by this time and eagerly joined NFBR. The later did wisely enough and showed that it has money it is going to spend for the badminton but not for the better president's living. Up till now thay did a lot for the sport. Nevertheless, it must be pointed out they (NFBR + Mr.S.) are far from being called Good Guys. They are after their own goals and often they choose disgusting ways to reach their goals. And their ations sometimes are nor better than RBF's ones. . So, it is where the nightmare started. It is quite clear that currently only RBF have the right to enlist sportsmen for the events. IMHO it was a bad idea when NFBR tried to do this instead of RBF, saying that according to the Russian law RBF does not exist and the only organization that can represent russian badminton is NFBR. From this point you can well find out the complete story at the EBU site. RBF sued and won and now untill IBF officialy chose another organization (using the procedures stipulated in its charter), RBF is recognized as a representative for RF. And this simply means that it is very unlikely RF will participate in the incoming tournaments (RBF lacks funds and players while NFBR cannot enter tournaments) until either they develope some kind of an agreement or one of them cease to exist completely. I see no other way out. . Now... The whole affair smells terrible. I dunno how did Mr.S. managed to get help from Mr Gunnulan. I can only guess... 8) I dunno which organization is the less of 2 evils but I hope that the old ways are gonna be changed. And I'm sorry for the sportsmen who are now no more than the hostages of this Guys' fight. . OMG, that's my longest post here... Sorry for mistakes.
2 wood 22 chuck -> Yup, really small piece in fact. 8) This is nearly all that I know. Well, there are rumors also, but they cannot be trusted blindly. 2 Fend -> 'Judge not, that ye be not judged' (c) I do not see the whole picture. If you can't complete a jigsaw how can you call it beautiful/ugly? I only wanted to show you that the matter is far from being simple and easy... I'm afraid we'll have to wait and see.
The latest news is that Punch Gunalan will be staying. And RBF didnt send their representative to the AGM meeting. And one of the reason is RBF now no longer exist. RBF is dissolved.
Mikie, Thanks for sharing the story. It does not look nice to you, but unfortunately the badminton associations in Russia are not alone when money and athletes' interests are in play.
I hope what Mikie has posted knocks some common sense into some of the more IBF-biased and Punch-biased forum members. The BF is not a 'Kangaroo Court'. Also, Punch is not a vice President of the IBF. He is a level above that and holds the position of Deputy President, the no. 2 man in the IBF. Besides, he is also the Deputy Chairman of the IBF, Chairman of the Continental Conferderations Committee. Chairman of the Marketing & Research Committee, and Co-Chairman of the Training Center & Development Committee. Now, a provoking, soul-searching question that will show us what we really are-how do you think he got to where he is?
LOL. Nice one taneepak, though I have 2 cents on that half the members here will say he bought votes to get himself elected.
Wo, now that's real information. I don't really know what to say now. I am an Indonesian, so I know corruption very well too and I understand how much it hurts others when people at the top do things for themselves instead of others. OK, I will keep quiet... for now.
To do that Punch would need more money than even Bill Gates can afford. We are not talking about a simple majority but 2/3 majority. Also the combined Western countries have more than enough votes to make the 2/3 impossible. Surely, it is unlikely that all countries, including sizeble vote-wielding Western countries to be corrupt and that Punch has the financial clout to print the money? People can say anything in this forum because there is no accountability. It costs them nothing to "rubbish" anyone.
We need a biography on Punch Gunalan. An objective one. Also he should visit these forums and try to clarify. Some of the stuff he has been accused of is very serious... I also want to hear his gameplan for marketing badminton to the world.
Now if Punch were to visit this forum we could end up being sued by both Punch and the IBF for huge damages. I am sure this forum will disclaim all responsibility for the views, opinions, and also accusations expressed by its members.
