Decisions by Council

Below is a summary of the key decisions of the recent BWF AGM held on 21 May and the Council meeting of 26 May 2016 – both held in Kunshan, China.

Amendments to Laws of Badminton – the AGM approved amendments to the Laws of Badminton – Law 13.3, Law 16.5.3, Law 16.7 – as circulated in the Notice of the AGM and Annual Report. Please see attached for details of what was approved by the AGM.

Amendments – Code of Conduct in Relation to Betting, Wagering and Irregular Match Results (General Competition Regulations – Appendix 5).

The Council approved a number of amendments to Appendix 5 – see the attached for details. Two key elements worth a special note are:

• Definition of Players – The definition of a Player has been refined to mean – any player with a World Ranking. (Previously a player had to have a World Ranking and to have competed in 3 or more BWF sanctioned international tournaments).
• Umpires included – It is now an offence for any BWF and Continental Confederation (CC) Certificated and Accredited Umpire to bet on badminton (whether on duty at a tournament or not). (Previously this applied to Umpires who were on duty at an event only for that particular event. Now the no betting on badminton rule applies to all such Umpires at all times while they hold their credential at the CC or BWF level.

Laws and Regulations

The BWF Council approved amendments to the following:

• Laws of Badminton – Part II – Section 1B – Appendix 7
• Recommendations to Technical Officials – Section 3.7 – Misconduct
• General Competition Regulations

Guidelines for Constitutions and Model Clauses with Notes – The Council approved the Guidelines for Constitutions and Model Clauses as circulated on 4 May 2016 (see our memo of this date). These guidelines can be accessed from the BWF website (linked here).

Good Governance Guidelines – The Council approved the Guidelines for Good Governance. These can be accessed from the BWF website (linked here).

The questionnaire for the BWF membership presented at the Member’s Forum will be followed up in the next few months. BWF is looking at an online version of this questionnaire and a number of members who would like to use the questionnaire as a trial.

Development – the Council approved an additional $166,000 to support more Shuttle Time implementation programmes for schools badminton. The total budget for schools badminton equipment for Shuttle Time now stands at $300,000 for 2016. The BWF will liaise closely with the Continental Confederations to determine needs and priorities for 2016 for this additional resource.

Outdoor Badminton – The Council established a working group to develop an outdoor version of badminton – including a set of rules. This is to be implemented once an outdoor shuttlecock has been fully developed and ready for use in competitions in an outdoor version of the game.