The Badminton World Federation (BWF) is the international sports governing body sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee for badminton. It was founded on 5 July 1934 as the International Badminton Federation, with nine member nations: Canada, Denmark, England, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland, and Wales. The IBF merged with the World Badminton Federation in 1981 and renamed itself the Badminton World Federation in 2006.
When the BWF was founded, its head office was located in Cheltenham, UK. It relocated to Kuala Lumpur in 2005. Khunying Patama Leeswadtrakul of Thailand is the current president. The BWF has 202 member national associations organised into five continental confederations.
Continental federations
The BWF works in co-operation with regional governing bodies to promote and develop the sport of badminton around the world, they are: RegionConfederationMembers AsiaBadminton Asia (BA)45 EuropeBadminton Europe (BE)53 AmericasBadminton Pan America (BPA)38 AfricaBadminton Africa49 OceaniaBadminton Oceania (BO)17Total202
Presidents Below is the list of presidents since 1934:
No.YearsNameCountry11934–1955George Alan Thomas21955–1957John Plunkett-Dillon31957–1959Brigadier Bruce Hay41959–1961A. C. J. van Vossen51961–1963John McCallum61963–1965Nils Peder Kristensen71965–1969David Bloomer81969–1971Humphrey Chilton91971–1974Ferry Sonneville101974–1976Stuart Wyatt111976–1981Stellan Mohlin121981–1984Craig Reedie131984–1986Poul-Erik Nielsen141986–1990Ian Palmer151990–1993Arthur Jones161993–2001Lu Shengrong172001–2005Korn Dabbaransi182005–2013Kang Young-joong192013–2025Poul-Erik Høyer Larsen202025–Patama Leeswadtrakul
Rankings
The BWF World Ranking and BWF World Junior Ranking are introduced to determine the strength of the players. BWF World Ranking is used for determining the qualification for entry and seeding for the BWF-sanctioned tournament. The points awarded is based on the final results of each tournament participated for the past 52 weeks. Junior Ranking consists of players under 19 years old.
Tournaments
Grade 1 (S-Tier) The BWF regularly organises seven major international badminton events and two events for para-badminton:
Main BWF World Championships Thomas Cup: Men's national teams Uber Cup: Women's national teams Sudirman Cup: Mixed national teams Olympic Games(in co-operation with IOC)
Others BWF World Junior Championships BWF World Senior Championships BWF Para-Badminton World Championships Paralympic Games(in co-operation with IPC)
Defunct Badminton World Cup: Suspended after 1997 but was revived in 2005 only as an invitational tournament.
Grade 2 (A-Tier) Grade 2 tournaments, known as BWF World Tour was sanctioned into six levels with different world ranking points awarded. Main Level 1: BWF World Tour Finals Level 2: BWF World Tour Super 1000 Level 3: BWF World Tour Super 750 Level 4: BWF World Tour Super 500 Level 5: BWF World Tour Super 300 Level 6: BWF Tour Super 100
Defunct Super Series Premier Super Series Grand Prix Gold Grand Prix
Grade 3 (B-Tier) Grade 3 tournaments, known as Continental Circuit, are sanctioned into three levels with different world ranking points awarded. International Challenge International Series Future Series
Awards The BWF bestows special honours onto players, umpires, sponsors, and other individuals for their achievement in badminton or for their contributions to badminton. BWF Awards Lifetime Achievement Hall of Fame Herbert Scheele Trophy Distinguished Service Meritorius Service Certificate of Commendation
Logo Over the years, the organization has had several logos. Originally it used the IBF logo. As the organization was renamed to BWF, a new logo designed by Aboeb Luthfy of Indonesia featuring a shuttlecock circling a stylized globe was adopted in 2007. In May 2012, it adopted a new, streamlined logo featuring the letters "BWF" inside a red stylized shuttlecock.
Publications World Badminton (Journal) The IBF Handbook
See also BWF World Ranking World Badminton Federation (merged with the IBF in 1981)
References
External links