Thanks jkkwongnz for your comments. Let me straight out the factors which affect LD's decision to continue playing: 1. Money 2. Glory of achievement 3. Enjoy easy life instead of hardship For Li YB, he only needs to consider 1. Money 2. Glory of achievement Clearly, Lin Dan is still, by far, the best badminton player now. All true badminton fans like to watch him playing, but not the players. In fact, no player wants to play LD in any tournaments. Lee CW even protested and complained in public before WC. In fact, not only LCW, other CHN players, like Chen Long, Du PY, Wang ZM, especially Gao Huan and Chen Yuekun, not only they have less chance to win a tournament, but also they have to be kicked out the national team for a space for LD. Usually, LYB should be happy because LD could bring more glory to him too. But since LD is too famous to control, and also they have already broke up on money issues. There are unsolved sponsorship if taking in LD into the national team. For commercial ads, Lin Dan might be more valuable than the rest of the entire national team. That's the reason LYB had not wasted any chance to belittle LD before the WC. Not only rejected LD to play the Sudirman/Thomas cup, but also kicked LD out of the national team directly, and also claimed that LD's not competitive for professional badminton anymore, and would retire soon, or already retired. Under these circumstances, LD changed his strategy to focus on the Chinese league. Since he's commercial ads mostly in China, so he gave up the international market which he rarely had any income. Fortunately, he's got a wild card unexpected, thus he's got more glory and money. Now, by claiming playing Rio 2016, I think LD using this to threaten LYB. It is the least thing LYB likes to hear that LD wants to share more market share for badminton commercials. LD uses this to force LYB to negotiate with him to get more money and shares of sponsorship. LYB had offered coach position to LD, obviously this was not what LD interested in currently. No fan's satisfied with that either, simply because LD is still the greatest player. By offering a job to LD, LYB loses nothing, but gains the total badminton sponsorship. Most CHN players could accept the job offer for early retirement, such as Ji Xingpeng, Chen Jin, but not LD. He knew, as the greatest player, he should not be the one chasing after the job, instead, there's many better jobs chasing after him.
This is the photo taken when Lin Dan claimed he would play until Rio 2016. Usually, a person, made such claim, should be happy, confident and optimistic. But LD looked different. He looked cautious, bleak and grim, with some kind of trepidation, because he knew his claim would irritate LYB, that's the reason LD looked like a person in the middle of bargain. His claim was a kind of offense which invaded the interest of LYB, so he has to be cautious. View attachment 149583
LD didn't play for 8 months after London Olympics because he couldn't train in Beijing and travel constantly around China at the same time. He also got married during that period. LD also said he hopes to become a father next year. I think for now, LYB and LD are negotiating the small details. One of the major issue is wild card. Can he get more wild cards for the next three years? LYB wants LD for several things from now till 2016: (1) to win at major events (2) to coach, train and/or spar with young players (3) to earn money for the whole CBA by participating in sponsorship events around China LD wants the following in the next 3 years: (1) become a father (2) qualify and win at major events (3) earn money LD is also thinking about what he can and should do after Rio 2016. Should he start a business like Li Ning? Enter the entertainment business like Bao CL? Start a club like Taufik? Just wondering, do major events such as Asian Games, Thomas Cup and Sudirman Cup require world ranking points for qualification purpose?
What makes you guys think that the CBA has any kind of money shortage? China is trying to dominate the world in sports, theirs sports associations will never have a shortage of cash flow especially such a dominant one such as badminton. If anything, the arguments are about the split between the player and the association when a title is won. And if Li-Ning as a sponsor fails financially, Yonex, Victor and Adidas would quickly fill the void.
You misunderstood! It's not short of money, it's about more money. There's no problem for CBA to pay regular salary to each players. Actually, you may not know. All players, including the national team members, their salaries are paid by their provincial governments. LD's salary is paid by PLA, the national army, since he plays for the army. It's not about how to split the prize money either, that money is almost nothing. It's not about only Li-Ning sponsorship. Lin Dan alone, has more than 10 deals with world famous brands. How much LD earns each year, please check the forbes http://www.forbeschina.com/review/list/002055.shtml#jump LD earned ￥ 22,000,000 (about $3.7million US Dollars) last year, even skipped most of the tournaments. Which tournament has a prize for one single player that much?
wow, LD signed a lot of sponsorship deals: intel, KFC, gillette, pepsi, KIA, Fedex, etc... http://baike.baidu.com/view/89024.htm
Thanks for your posts 2cents, they are real fun! And even possible too! i would say that if the conflict you mention is true, both LYB and LD have to move with care, specially LYB. LD might be able to pull some strings.
Wow, KFC too? I thought that I choose his sponsor partners really carefully and he would represent a product only if he thinks it's a good product. Well, I question that KFC is good for the human people...
Yea I seem to recall him saying in one of the interviews being careful in representing/backing the sponsors' products, especially medicines(?) or supplements(?) or food related products(?) (forgot which he referred to). Or maybe the KFC chains are quite different in China than in US or Europe. Like McDonald's, they may have healthier local food varieties.
When asked by the reporter to rank his priorities, Lin Dan as expected still placed his family first, followed by career, and winning titles come last. And as usual, his greatest wish now is to become a father next year. http://sports.qq.com/a/20130917/003707.htm For the next 4 months, his only badminton involvement is the CBSL beginning 28th Sep. Talking about the CBSL, it has been revamped. First, the new season will stretch from 28th Sep to 5th June next year; Second, the format is best of five matches comprising two singles,two doubles and one mixed of 3v3, namely, MS, WS, MD,WD, and XD composing of 3 players with 2 men and 1 woman on each side; Third, the scoring system is 11-point, not 21; Fourth, before each tie, there will be a MD match played between amateurs; Fifth, each team to be made up of minimum 8 professionals and at least 3 amateurs. Regarding the 11-point per set scoring system, its purposes are to facilitate TV broadcasts and minimize the risks/rate of injury of the national players. On this Lin Dan has his reservations about its entertainment value owing to shorter matches, the element of chance would be higher, plus the addition of 3v3 XD and the reverse MD matches as well as the amateur MD square-off, all of which have never been tried before; hopefully the various clubs can quickly get used to them. This time, four of the participating clubs will make their home base in Guangdong including Lin Dan's BAYI and Lee CW's New Century City and it is to be hoped the 'Lin-Lee Battle Royal' will become the highlight to the delight of the fans.
My intuition is that Lin Dan's participation in Rio'16 will only be confirmed just before the next Olympic qualifying cycle when he must be in active competition to chalk up enough ranking points to become one of the top two CHN MS to qualify for the Olympics. Should he not be the top 2 Chinese by then, I think none of his colleagues will be willing to make way for the two-time Olympic champion. Or he could be playing mind games with and against LYB ? Or maybe he's buying time to wait and see if LCW is serious about aiming for Rio ? There is still quite a bit of time for the whole saga to play itself out. Keeps us in suspense. On another note, how many players 'suffered' and is 'suffering' in Lin Dan's era? Now my main concern is Chen Long, looks what's happening to him now ?!
when hauge 1st mention that fuhaifeng had a son,a lots of fans cannot accept and claim that it is not true. i choose to believe what 2scent said.
Good idea to have BWF to initiate the OG qualifying points right after the previous game itself. This will keep the players in line to keep fit and entertaining the fans regularly. Or a separate point system for Olympics till the next edition.
For those of you who haven't had enough of Lin Dan vs Lee CW, we are in for another treat. Based on this report http://sports.qq.com/a/20130918/016405.htm , the Dream Clash of The Titans is slated for 5th Oct in the early rounds of the new season CBSL between Lin Dan's BAYI and Lee CW's Guangdong New Century City after the latter's opening tie with defending champion Qingdao team.
The CBL match system sounds...Crazy. As Lin Dan says, if the score is only to 11 the "best" player will be more unlikely to win all the time. And about the XD...I understand that it's okay to do in practice and the such but...I don't know about this.
New CBL system sounds incredibly stupid. If every league continues to set its own rules, we might as well stop calling it badminton in those leagues. The really annoying thing is ppl trying to invent new disciplines, that's just...unnecessary and has low entertainment value in my experience. Example would be the American league where they played similar matches, and with a different point system as well. Personally, I don't agree with leagues/tournaments trying to reduce risk of injury by adjusting the playing format. Professional athletes should look after themselves, and manage their playing schedule in such a way that they don't risk injury due to playing too many tournaments/matches in too short a time.
I agree, those rules for the CBSL are not serious. It's all fake, like wrestling in the US. It is all show, not sport. Anyway, the CBSL have always been badly organised.
If CBSL have always been badly organized ,why did LCW, Intanon R, KKK/TBH and Taufik Hidayat joined them and even said they enjoyed it, esp Intanon whose stint has benefited her and she has even signed another 3-yr contract ? Instead of imputing questionable or negative motives to CBSL, as if they are out to kill themselves paying good money for nothing, let alone try to promote badminton, why don't you try to understand their rationale for introducing those radical changes and give your reasons for your disapproval like what Lin Dan has done ? For example, if the 11-point scoring system turns out to be a bad move for both players and spectators - say matches are too short to be entertaining to watch or too much uncertainty in the outcome or players not willing to attack for fear of losing easy points, etc - don't you think they will change or improve it next time? The CBSL organizer has already explained the purpose of introducing the 11-point scoring system is to facilitate TV broadcast - long hours of TV time can be very expensive or boring for the average viewer day after day or week after week - and CBA is concerned about risks of injuries to their national players who have international tourney duties and obligations throughout the period. The CBSL is meant to popularize and promote the sport at the grassroots level which is why this time they added in an amateur MD match as 'appetizer' before every tie and the players are expected to mingle and interact with the crowd. Finally, your comparison of CBSL with wrestling in the US is inapt, an ill-chosen example, even unsavoury - for reasons I obviously need not elaborate. If you care to give constructive criticisms, I'm sure both CBSL and CBA would greatly appreciate it.
To me it seems more like a promotional tour with the stars, some amateurs, some show (3vs.3), some small junks of "real badminton", cheerleaders, ... Nothing too serious, but more like advertising/show. Players won't take it too seriously... The real sport is then played again in SS, WC and OG...
