Considered As The Culprit Of Indonesia Forced Withdrawal From All England, BWF Chairman Poul-Erik Hoyer Larsen's Wealth Reaches IDR 446 billion?

BWF Chairman, Poul-Erik Hoyer Larsen. (Photo: Doc. Badminton Planet)

JAKARTA - All members of the Indonesian badminton team, both athletes, coaches, and officials, were forced to withdraw from the prestigious Yonex All England 2021 tournament. The reason was that Indonesian players were on a flight from Istanbul to Birmingham with people who were confirmed positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, March 13th.

This suddenly angered the people of Indonesia, especially fans of this sport. After all, All England is the biggest tournament which is the benchmark of success for badminton players.

Badminton World Federation (BWF), considered as the most responsible party that makes Indonesia if forced to withdraw from All England, an inconvenient incident for the Indonesian people. Indonesian netizens are busy launching "attacks" protests on the social media accounts of the world badminton federation.

Until this news was made, on the Instagram account @bwf.official, for example, 20,702 comments were uploaded by BWF regarding the forced withdrawal of Indonesia from All England. Until finally BWF also limited the number of comments on the upload.

The Twitter account @bwfmedia is no less crowded. BWF's post regarding the forced withdrawal of Indonesian players from All England in 2021 was retweeted 1,500 times.

All Indonesian 🇮🇩 players have been withdrawn from the @YonexAllEngland . A person travelling on their inboard flight has tested positive for #COVID19, with all personnel to self-isolate for 10 days. #HSBCbadminton #BWFWorldTour #AllEngland2021 https://t.co/4ozrtdyyDf

— BWF (@bwfmedia) March 17, 2021

When it comes to BWF, now the world badminton federation is chaired by Poul-Erik Hoyer Larsen. He is a former great badminton player from Denmark who achieved success from 1985 to the early 2000s

The man who was born on September 20, 1965, in the City of Helsinge won his first international title when he won the Czechoslovakian Open in 1985. After that, he won a number of IBF World Grand Prix titles ranging from the French Open, Dutch Open, Denmark Open, German Open, Poona Open, Swiss Open, Russia Open, Carlton Inter-sport Cup, to the US Open.

Larsen has also been ranked first in the world based on BWF calculations at his time. At its peak, Larsen participated in three different Olympics, namely 1992 Barcelona, 1996 in Atlanta, and 2000 in Sydney.

The 1996 Atlanta Olympics became Larsen's most memorable edition. The reason is, he was able to grab a gold medal after defeating Dong Jiong (China) with a score of 15-12, 15-10.

Retiring after the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Larsen reappeared in 2007 where he was appointed as Vice President of the Badminton Danish Federation.

Then in 2010, Larsen was trusted to serve as President of the European Badminton Federation. His tenure only lasted almost three years.

The reason is, Larsen ran for president of the BWF in 2013, competing with the Indonesian representative Justin Suhandinata.

Larsen was successfully elected to replace Kang Young-Joong (South Korea) after receiving 145 votes, while Justin only won 120 votes.

Then in March 2017, Larsen was re-elected as President of the BWF for a second term which will be held in the next four years.

As one of the most successful players in the world of badminton, of course, Larsen has abundant wealth. Thecelebnetworths estimates, this 54-year-old man has amassed a fortune of 31 million US dollars.

If converted at an exchange rate of IDR 14,400 per US dollar, Larsen's wealth will reach IDR 446.4 billion. However, this site explains that not many athletes report their assets like a conglomerate.

Even so, if you look at what Larsen has achieved so far, this number makes sense. The average prize a badminton player receives in a major tournament ranges from hundreds of millions to billions of rupiah.

Not to mention, the salary and bonus that a player receives. Moreover, Larsen also has a steady income from his position as Chairman of the BWF, where according to networthpedia, the money he received in 2020 reached USD 250,000, or around IDR 3.6 billion. Isn't that amazing?

In comparison, the Malaysian badminton legend Lee Chong Wei was said to have a fortune that amounted to 75 million US dollars or equivalent to IDR 1.05 trillion in 2016. So, it is not impossible that Larsen has hundreds of billions of assets as a result of his career in the world of badminton.