Leverdez awaits formal reason for exclusion

French champion Brice Leverdez announced on his Facebook page that he was still awaiting an official reason for his exclusion from the French National Team during last week’s European Mixed Team Championships in Belgium.  Leverdez was told he was being excluded from the team just hours before France was to play a quarter-final against Germany.  Leverdez posted that National Technical Director Philippe Limouzin summoned the player to his hotel room and informed him that he was being cut from the national team for inappropriate behaviour and for refusing to shake the hand of the president of the French Badminton Federation (ffBad) prior to the team’s match against Sweden.

Leverdez’s most recent posting on his Facebook page says that the ffBad president has told the media that the handshake incident was anecdotal regarding the reasons for his exclusion.  Leverdez further claims that the refusal to shake the president’s hand took place in a private context and that it was the Federation’s decision to make the incident public.

Meanwhile, the announcements on the ffBad website and Facebook page of the action taken against Leverdez seem to have been removed.  The deleted announcements stated that Leverdez would be facing disciplinary action but the player has yet to acknowledge being formally notified of the action.  On Sunday, ffBad President Richard Remaud said in a radio interview on RMC that things could still “return to order”, acknowledging that Brice, in youth, “retains the right to be impolite”.

This incident happened against the backdrop of a dispute within the team resulting from the ffBad insistence on players participating in the European Games this spring rather than in events yielding world ranking points.  It was this dispute that resulted in the French team travelling to Belgium without their coaching staff.