PETALING JAYA: Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) president Norza Zakaria has apologised to Misbun Sidek over the termination of his contract as the national junior singles coaching director.
Misbun’s contract was terminated following the poor performance by the national junior squad at the Badminton Asia Junior Championships in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, last month.
Misbun’s personal manager, Nor Ahmad Kamal, was quoted by Utusan Malaysia as saying that Norza had issued the apology at a press conference in Bukit Kiara yesterday.
According to Ahmad, Norza said there was some “miscommunication” in the manner in which the termination was handled.
“Misbun admitted to feeling relieved after Norza himself made the apology. He has accepted the apology and considers the matter resolved. He does not want to prolong the issue,” said Ahmad.
Last Friday, BAM deputy president V Subramaniam announced that the association and Misbun had mutually agreed to part ways.
On Monday, Misbun claimed he was fired by BAM and that he did not reach a mutual agreement to part ways, as announced by the association.
He told a media conference he was upset by BAM’s claim that he had accepted the decision to part ways.
Yesterday, Bernama reported that BAM had made a U-turn and offered to extend Misbun’s contract until the end of the year.
Norza said the decision was made to allow Misbun the opportunity of guiding the national junior shuttlers to the world junior championships in Spokane, Washington, from Sept 25 to Oct 8.
Norza also announced yesterday that he would be stepping down from his post as BAM president at the end of the year. He said his decision was not related to the controversy involving BAM and Misbun.
