BWF Deputy President excused from duties

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) issued a press yesterday saying that it had “accepted a request from its Deputy President Gustavo Salazar Delgado to be excused from his duties until an investigation against him is completed”.  Salazar reportedly wished to remove himself from his role in badminton’s world governing body “so as not to cause any reputational or undue damage to the BWF while the investigation is in progress”.

The press release indicates that the request from Salazar relates to accusations against him in his native Peru, and points out that these are “related to personal business matters. They are entirely unrelated to badminton and Salazar’s role as BWF Deputy President”.

Last month, Salazar was re-elected unopposed as Deputy President but was one of two BWF Council members not on hand when the body was photographed at the Annual General Meeting in Australia, immediately before the kick-off of the Sudirman Cup.  He was first elected to the position in 2013 but first became a BWF Council member in 2007.

A report on the French-language site FrancsJeux suggested that these developments relate to the well-known Odebrecht scandal but news in English mentioning Salazar specifically remains scarce and it is still unclear what his connection to the affair is alleged to be.