Badminton Organization

Badminton is the second most crowd-pleasing sports in the world as it is not just fun but also a sport that even a novice can pick up easily in matter of seconds!
As the popularity of badminton escalate, organizations are formed as a commonplace for people with the liking of the sport to gather, to play together while also to learn more about the sport.

The most recognised badminton organization formed in the world is the Badminton World Federation (BWF), which is an international governing body that is recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Initially, founded as the International Badminton Federation (IBF) in the year 1934, but 7 decades later, on the 24th of September 2006, it had since then changed its name to the Badminton World Federation (BWF) at the Extraordinary General Meeting in Madrid.

To promote and to develop the sport of badminton around the world, BWF cooperated with regional oragnizations to form confederations. There are five confederations  that are associated with BWF are:

1. Asia: Badminton Asia Confederation (BAC)

2.Africa: Badminton Confederation of Africa (BCA)

3.Americas: Badminton Pan Am (North America and South America belong to the same confederation; BPA)

4.Europe: Badminton Europe (BE)

5.Oceania: Badminton Oceania (BO)

Badminton World Federation (BWF) organises competitions that are separated to levels as the higher the level in the competition, the more the prize money and the higher the ranking points earned by each player. There are four levels of tounaments organized by the BWF.

Thomas Cup & Uber Cup.

BWF World Championships

Sudirman Cup

The first level of tournaments includes the Thomas Cup, Uber Cup, BWF World Championships and Sudirman Cup. The Thomas Cup is a worlds men’s team championship event, the Uber Cup is the women’s team international event while the Sudirman Cup is a gender-mixed international team badminton championship, which all takes place once every 2 years. The BWF World Championship event happens annually starting from 2006 to allow more players to be crowned as “World Champions” but once every four years, this event will not be held to dedicate  it to the Summer Olympics Games.

Next, the second level of tournaments includes the World Superseries Finals, World  Superseries Premier, and the World Superseries.  The players that enters the World Superseries Finals will win a minimum prize money of about $500,000, a minimum prize pool for $600,000 in the World  Superseries Premier and more than $325,000 in the World Superseries. Players will collect points in the tournament to determine whether  they can make it in the Super Series Finals held at the year end. In addition to that, tournaments that hold the World Super Series are like China Open and Malaysian Open.

Besides, tournaments at level three consist of the Grand Prix Gold and Grand Prix event. To be able to play in the the BWF Super Series open tournaments, top players are to accumulate their world ranking points. At the Grand Prix Gold tournaments, players can be rewarded from a minimum prize of $120,000 while a minimum $65,000 for the Grand Prix tournament. The BWF Super Series open tournaments include regional competitions like Badminton Asia Championships and European Badminton Championships in Asia and in Europe consecutively. On remark, these tournaments produces the world's best players on contrary with the Pan Am Badminton Championships. Examples of tournaments are like Malaysia Masters and Vietnam Open.

Lastly, at level four BWF events, tournaments that are included are International Challenge, International Series, and Future Series. In the International Challenge tournament, players would receive a minimum prize money of $20,000, $8,000 in the International Series  and not more than $8,000 in the Future Series tournament.

To know more about the BWF events in every level and to be updated, please click on the link given below:

1. https://bwf.tournamentsoftware.com/Home

2. http://bwfcorporate.com/events/

3. http://bwfworldchampionships.com/

By, Jolene Ng Tze En
Matric Number: 171420033