Wednesday, 23 December 2020 Doubles player Nikita Khakimov has been suspended for five years by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) for match-fixing and betting offences. The BWF was made aware of the allegations against Khakimov by a whistleblower, who claimed the Russian messaged him on Facebook and asked him to manipulate a result at the 2018 European Teams Championship in Kazan. Khakimov denied the allegations and claimed a team-mate had taken his phone to send the messages. Despite this, an independent panel found the 32-year-old to be in breach of the BWF integrity regulations. Khakimov was found guilty of approaching a player and offering money to manipulate a match at the European Teams Championship, betting on badminton matches, failing to properly cooperate with an investigation and deliberately destroying evidence of a corruption offence to conceal it from the BWF.