Badminton World Federation


The Badminton World Federation, aka BWF, is the international governing body for the sport of badminton approved by the International Olympic Committee. It was founded on 5 July 1934, as the International Badminton Federation with nine member nations: Canada, Denmark, England, France, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland, and Wales. In 1981, the IBF merged with the World Badminton Federation, and on 24 September 2006, at the Extraordinary General Meeting in Madrid, the name of the organization was changed to Badminton World Federation.
When the BWF was founded, its head office was located in Cheltenham, UK. It was then relocated to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on October 1, 2005. Khunying Patama Leeswadtrakul of Thailand is the current president. The BWF has 202 member associations around the world, organized 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:

Presidents

Below is the list of presidents since 1934:
No.YearsNameCountry
11934–1955George Alan Thomas
21955–1957John Plunkett-Dillon
31957–1959Brigadier Bruce Hay
41959–1961A. C. J. van Vossen
51961–1963John McCallum
61963–1965Nils Peder Kristensen
71965–1969David Bloomer
81969–1971Humphrey Chilton
91971–1974Ferry Sonneville
101974–1976Stuart Wyatt
111976–1981Stellan Mohlin
121981–1984Craig Reedie
131984–1986Poul-Erik Nielsen
141986–1990Ian Palmer
151990–1993Arthur Jones
161993–2001Lu Shengrong
172001–2005Korn Dabbaransi
182005–2013Kang Young-Joong
192013–2025Poul-Erik Høyer Larsen
202025–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

Grade 2 tournaments, known as BWF World Tour was sanctioned into six levels with different world ranking points awarded.

Main

Grade 3 tournaments, known as Continental Circuit, are sanctioned into three levels with different world ranking points awarded.
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 BWF, a new logo was adopted in 2007. In 2012 it adopted a new, streamlined logo.

Aborted clothing rule

The BWF and Octagon developed a rule that women badminton players must wear dresses or skirts "to ensure attractive presentation." It was included in the official rulebook in 2011, but was dropped before it was supposed to go into effect in 2012.

Publications

  • World Badminton
  • The IBF Handbook