Shanghai: Chinese badminton superstar Lin Dan, a two-time Olympic champion, has accused his super league club of failing to pay him and six others for the 2016-2017 season.
Regarded by some as badminton's greatest ever player, Lin said he felt "bitterly disappointed" and threatened to take legal action after not getting paid by Guangzhou Yueyu badminton club.
Lin said the players worked the whole season to keep the club, which signed him last year, from being relegated despite not getting their wages.
"Our understanding towards the club has been met with repeated delay," the 33-year-old wrote to his 3.6 million followers on the Twitter-like Weibo microblogging website.
"We have communicated with the club many times about salary payment; however, the club's attitude in solving this has made people helpless and disappointed.
"We did not hold anything back when we were fighting for the club's honour. Please don't let our sweat go to waste."
Another six of the club's players all posted the same statement on their Weibo accounts.
Guangzhou Yueyu were ranked seventh in the eight-team super league's 2016-2017 season, down from fifth in the previous season.
Lin's wages for the season, which ended in February, were four million yuan (US$583,000), the state-run Guangzhou Daily reported.
According to the newspaper, team chairman Gao Jun, who is also the head coach, said the club has also failed to pay the coaching team and the rest of the Chinese players.
Gao said the club has turned its operation rights to a separate firm run by the club's manager Fu Xun.
"It's not very good that we didn't give [salaries] for so long. But we are not avoiding this problem either," news portal Tencent sports quoted Fu Xun as saying.
Meanwhile, fallen Japanese star Kento Momota is set to make his competitive comeback later this month in a domestic tour event.
Momota, whose suspension was lifted last Monday, has entered the May 27-31 Japan ranking circuit tournament in Saitama with the former world No.2 looking to regain his standing on the national tour.
"I would like to sincerely apologise to everyone for the trouble and concern I have caused," Momota said in a statement. "I plan to work harder than ever at becoming an even better badminton player."
The 22-year-old Momota was a medal hope at last year's Rio Olympics, but was banned indefinitely for gambling at illegal casinos by the Japan Badminton Association in April, just months before the games' opening ceremony.