Indonesia Withdraws From The 2020 Thomas & Uber Cup

Thomas Cup and Uber Cup. (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian badminton team decided to withdraw from the competition for the 2020 Thomas and Uber Cup which is scheduled for October 3-11 in Aarhus, Denmark.

"The Indonesian team is confirmed to withdraw from the 2020 Thomas & Uber Cup. We have sent a letter to the Menpora and will immediately send a written statement to the BWF (International Badminton Federation) regarding this," said Secretary General of PP PBSI Achmad Budiharto in a written statement in Jakarta. Between, Friday, 11 September.

"This decision was taken after we discussed with the athletes and team officials," he added.

Budiharto explained that PBSI's reason for not sending its athletes to the men's and women's team championships was because of the concerns of athletes about the possibility of being exposed to COVID-19 which had not subsided.

In addition, they also doubted the existence of a guarantee of safety from BWF if there were participants and officials infected with COVID-19 during the tournament. There is no clear information regarding who will be responsible for this condition.

"If it was pulled from the start, everyone was excited because they saw such a great opportunity, but in the course of time and observing the unresolved development of COVID-19, both in Indonesia and in other countries, raised doubts among athletes," said Budiharto.

With the withdrawal of the Indonesian team from the 2020 Thomas & Uber Cup, automatically Indonesia will also not participate in the Denmark Open I and Denmark Open II events which are part of the European series tournament.

Thus, until now there have been seven countries that have officially withdrawn from the 2020 Thomas & Uber Cup, namely Chinese-Taipei, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia.