Gade demands more prize money

BIRMINGHAM - PETER Gade, Denmark's top player, has criticised the badminton tour's prize-money structure.

He is bidding to win the men's singles title at the All-England Championships, which start here today.

The 30-year-old Dane's career-best form has coincided with the inaugural Super Series - the 12-tournament 32-draw series which was started this year.

He won the series' first tournament, the Malaysian Open, in Kuala Lumpur six weeks ago.

He likes the new elite format, but is not happy with the rewards given to leading players.

'We still have the same prize money as 10 years ago. You can't look at many sports and say that,' he said.

'There should be a huge possibility in badminton.

'The series is a beginning, but it has a long way to go.

'With better prize money it should be different, especially as men's singles is much tougher than other events.

'They give prize money for the early rounds now, but in women's singles and women's doubles, the players are not pushed in the early rounds.

'Bao Chunlai got only US$6,400 (S$9,700) for being runner-up in Malaysia . Something is wrong, we need to fix that as soon as possible.

'The prize money for a tournament should be £300,000 (S$885,000) to £500,000.

'We could easily have set the minimum prize-money level at £300,000.

'Maybe three or four tournaments could have less, but this is what the prize-money levels should be.

'Hopefully it's a start, but if the Badminton World Federation can't show that this is working, we have to do something to change it.'

The All-England is offering a total prize money of US$200,000, the same as the Malaysian Open.

For the first time, first-round losers will get US$300.

Previously, prize money was available from only the quarter-finals.

This total is a US$75,000 increase on last year's, but significantly less than the Korean Open's US$300,000 or other major Asian tournaments.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE