KUALA LUMPUR: The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has reiterated that all draws conducted for its tournaments are free from any form of manipulation or irregularities.
The world governing body has dismissed former world men's doubles champion Aaron Chia's claim regarding the "strange" draw they received for next month's All England, as reported by Timesport on Wednesday.
Aaron has expressed frustration over the tendency for them to be matched against compatriots in the early rounds.
Aaron and his partner Soh Wooi Yik are scheduled to begin their campaign at Arena Birmingham against teammates Nur Izzuddin Rumsani-Goh Sze Fei. They could potentially face the same opponents in the French Open the week if both pairs advance to the last 16.
This has led Aaron to voice his concern that Malaysians are consistently grouped in the same half of the draw, particularly in European tournaments.
However, BWF refuted the claims by stating: "The draw process for HSBC BWF World Tour tournaments is done through a software system, is totally random within the parameters of the respective tournament level regulations, and each draw is approved by the tournament referee.
"This is the same process for all draws unless a manual draw is performed for group play competition."
It's worth noting that Section 6.4.4. of the BWF World Tour Regulations does state that no nationality separation applies for all World Tour events across all levels.
Aaron was not the first Malaysian shuttler to voice concerns about the issue.
In January 2020, Rio Olympic silver medallist Goh V Shem also shared his unhappiness after being drawn to face Aaron-Wooi Yik in the opening hurdle.
V Shem claimed that in the entire 2019, they faced Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi four times, three of them being in the first two rounds.
In the Malaysia Open last month, China's Liu Yu Chen took to his social media account to criticise BWF and he questioned whether the draw was being conducted fairly.
The impact of having two pairs of the same nationality meeting in the early rounds could deprive one of the pairs of the chance to secure sizable ranking points in a tournament.
The points collected during these last four months become even more crucial as they count towards qualification for the Paris Olympics.
In 2019, the Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported that Rio Olympic champion Chen Long was angered at having to play his countryman Lin Dan in the first round of the China Open and called for the draws to be made public.
The draw system of the BWF also drew criticism from Denmark's Anders Antonsen.
In a Facebook post, Antonsen wrote: "I simply can't comprehend that we in the sport of badminton don't have a system for making draws that work.
"It is seen countless times that players are facing the same opponents again and again in the first round, second round, and quarterfinals.
"Just to bring up one example: Now we have a situation where (the Danish pair) Mathias Boe-Mads Conard-Petersen are facing Han Chengkai-Zhou Haodong (of China) in the first round for the fourth time in the last five tournaments.
"I'm not a math specialist but I know for a fact that the chance for that to happen is almost non-existent."