Badminton loses pricey coach

Olympic champion and now coach Rexy Mainaky, tasked to turn the Filipino shuttlers into international winners, was recently recalled by Indonesia despite a live contract and an unprecedented monthly salary of $12,000.

Officials of the Philippine Badminton Association, who declined to be named because they are not authorized to speak on the issue, confirmed this yesterday following a decision by Indonesia’s sports ministry to require all its top coaches working abroad to return home.

Philippine Sports Commission executive director Guillermo Iroy also confirmed the development, saying it could have been a different story if Mainaky’s hiring was done through a “government-to-government” deal.

Mainaky, the 45-year-old Atlanta Olympics gold medalist in men’s doubles, left last month to coach the Indonesian team in the coming World Team Championship in Kuala Lumpur.

He was hired in May last year with a two-year contract that, apart from the salary that was previously unheard of for a foreign coach, also included board and lodging worth P100,000 to P150,000 a month for his family, and scholarship in an international school for his kids.