The Badminton World Federation (BWF) is the international

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ge ...

for the sport of

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

recognised by the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

(IOC). It was founded in 1934 as the International Badminton Federation (IBF) with nine member nations (

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Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

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Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

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and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

). In 1981 the IBF merged with the

World Badminton Federation The World Badminton Federation is a former badminton organization, it was founded in February 1978 and ceased its operation on May 26, 1981 after it merged with the International Badminton Federation (now known as Badminton World Federation or BWF). ...

, and on 24 September 2006, at the Extraordinary General Meeting in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, the name of the organization was changed to Badminton World Federation (BWF). When the BWF was founded (as the IBF), its head office was located in

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

, UK. The head office was relocated to

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

on October 1, 2005.

Poul-Erik Høyer Larsen Poul-Erik Høyer Larsen (born 20 September 1965) is the current President of the Badminton World Federation and a retired Danish badminton player who won major international singles titles in the 1990s, and ranks among Denmark's badminton greats. ...

is the current president. The BWF currently has 176 member nations around the world, organized into 5 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:

Presidents

Below is the list of presidents since 1934:

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

The BWF regularly organises seven major international badminton events and two events for

para-badminton Para-badminton is a variant of badminton for athletes with a range of physical disabilities. Badminton World Federation (BWF) is the main governing body for para-badminton starting from June 2011. The sport was governed by Para Badminton World Fed ...

: Major tournaments: *

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Thomas Cup The Thomas Cup, sometimes called the World Men's Team Championships, is an international badminton competition among teams representing member nations of the Badminton World Federation (BWF), the sport's global governing body. The championships h ...

Uber Cup The Uber Cup, sometimes called the World Women's Team Championships, is a major international badminton competition contested by women's national badminton teams. First held in 1956–1957 and contested at three year intervals, it has been contes ...

Sudirman Cup The Sudirman Cup is an international badminton mixed team competition contested by member countries of the Badminton World Federation (BWF), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every two years since the inaugura ...

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

in co-operation with

Other major tournaments: * World Junior Championships *

BWF World Senior Championships The BWF World Senior Championships is a badminton tournament sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF). The winners will be crowned as the "World Senior Champions" and awarded gold medals. However, it does not offer any prize money. The tour ...

Para major tournaments: * Para-Badminton World Championships *

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

in co-operation with

International Paralympic Committee The International Paralympic Committee (IPC; german: Internationales Paralympisches Komitee) is an international non-profit organisation and the global governing body for the Paralympic Movement. The IPC organizes the Paralympic Games and fun ...

(sports added since

Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games The , branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, was an international multi-sport event, multi-sport parasports event held from 24 August to 5 September 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. They were the 16th Summer Paralympic Games as organized by the Inter ...

) Event(s) are no longer held regularly: *

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

was suspended since 1997. However, the BWF revived the event in 2005 (with

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

as host) but only as an invitational tournament. China swept gold in all 5 categories.

Grade 2

Grade 2 tournaments, known as

BWF World Tour The BWF World Tour is a Grade 2 badminton tournament series, sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF). It is a competition open to the top world ranked players in singles (men's and women's) and doubles (men's, women's and mixed). The compet ...

was sanctioned into six levels with different world ranking points awarded, as order they are: * Level 1:

BWF World Tour Finals The BWF World Tour Finals, officially HSBC BWF World Tour Finals, which succeeds BWF Super Series Finals, is an annual badminton tournament which is held every December of a year where the players with the most points from that calendar year's event ...

* 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 The events that were formerly held from 2007 to 2017 are: * Super Series Premier *

Super Series The Super Series were exhibition games between Soviet teams and NHL teams that took place on the NHL opponents' home ice in North America from 1976 to 1991. The Soviet teams were usually club teams from the Soviet hockey league. The exception w ...

* Grand Prix Gold *

Grand Prix Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to: Arts and entertainment ...

Grade 3

Grade 3 tournaments, known as Continental Circuit was sanctioned into three levels with different world ranking points awarded, as order they are: * 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. * Lifetime Achievement *

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

* Herbert Scheele Trophy * Distinguished Service * Meritorius Service * Certificate of Commendation * Eddy Choong Player of the Year (hiatus since 2008) * Best Male and Female Player of the Year * Eddy Choong Most Promising Player of the Year * Women in Badminton

Logo

Over the years, the organization has had several logos. Originally it used the IBF logo. As the BWF, a new logo was adopted in 2007. In 2012 it adopted a new, streamlined logo. File:2012 BWF logo.svg, BWF logo 2012–present

Publications

* World Badminton (Journal) * The IBF Handbook

Social media

Youtube

Instagram

References

External links

Official website

BWF Corporate

BWF Tournament Software
{{Authority control International organisations based in Malaysia Organisations based in Cheltenham IOC-recognised international federations Badminton organizations Sports organizations established in 1934