New Regulations 2018

In 2018, the new BWF World Tour will start. As a result of this, the BWF has reviewed the General Competition Regulations (GCR) and associated Tournament Regulations and amendments to these will come into effect as of 1 January 2018.

The updates made are significant, so it is important that Members carefully read all sections of the GCR and associated Tournament Regulations and make your teams, players, and coaches and team managers aware of these.

The following regulations can be downloaded from the new Statutes page of the Corporate website.

• Section 5.1 – General Competition Regulations
• Section 5.2 – Tournament Related Rules

– Section 5.2.1 – Junior Tournament Regulations
– Section 5.2.2 – BWF World Tour Regulations
– Section 5.2.3 – Major Events Tournament Regulations Summary Table

• Tournament Related Rules

– Section 5.3.1 – Tournament Sanction Policy
– Section 5.3.2 – Time Lines for Tournaments
– Section 5.3.3 – Ranking Systems

– Section 5.3.3.1 – World Ranking System
– Section 5.3.3.2 – World Junior Ranking System
– Section 5.3.3.3 – World Team Ranking System
– Section 5.3.3.4 – Explanation of Adjusted & Notional Ranking

– Section 5.3.4 – Specifications for International Standards Facilities
– Section 5.3.5 – Distribution of Prize Money (All Levels)
– Section 5.3.6 – Player Commitment Regulations
– Section 5.3.7 – Summary of GCR 21&23 (Player Clothing)
– Section 5.3.8 – Technical Diagrams and Tables – Seeding and Byes
– Section 5.3.9 – Eligibility and Processing of Entries for World Championships

Changes to the General Competition Regulations

Outside of some adjustments made to the order and structure of the document or separation of information into other sections outside of the GCR, please make note of some key changes to the regulations which will take effect 1 January 2018:

• Revised definitions of some events and tournaments, including the structure for the new BWF World Tour (Section 2)
• Clarified rights and responsibilities of Participants in BWF Sanctioned Tournaments (Section 4)
• New terminology and regulations related to Player Jurisdiction and Entry in Tournaments, including Registration and Deregistration for Entry (Section 5)
• More flexibility in eligibility for International Representation (Section 6).