Announcement

Key Decisions of Council – 1 March Meeting

Dear Members, Continental Confederations and BWF recognised Para-sports organisations

The BWF Council met on Saturday 1 March and there are two updates on regulations that you need to be aware of – amendments to the following:

  1. Para Badminton World Ranking Regulations
  2. Award Regulations – Player of the Year Award
  1. BWF Statutes – Section 5.5.9 – Para Badminton World Rankings

Changes have been made to the length of time World Ranking points will last for Continental Championships (Clause 5.7), as well as to the allocation of World Ranking points to each Continental Confederation, based on an analysis of player strength from each region (Clause 6.11), and by association, the overall allocation of points (Clause 6.3).

Please refer to BWF Statutes, Section 5.5.9 – Para Badminton World Rankings for more details changes highlighted in yellow).

Chapter 5 – Technical Regulations of the BWF Statutes can be accessed at the BWF Corporate website (linked here).

Contact Chris Trenholme, Events Director – Technical Operations, if you have any questions related to the amendments – [email protected]

  1. Player of the Year Award Regulations

Following the recommendations from the BWF Awards Commission, the Council made a number of small changes to the points system allocated against Criteria 1 and Criteria 2 in the attached rules (see the charts on page 4 of the attached rules).

The aim is to have a more balanced approach between 1) ranking points and 2) expert panel allocated points over a 12 month period.

Background

In 2023, BWF introduced a number of new awards for Player of the Year (previously it was Male / Female / Pair of the Year). For the first time in 2024, five player categorise were part of the Player of the Year Awards system:

  1. Men’s Singles Player of the Year
  2. Women’s Singles Player of the Year
  3. Men’s Doubles Player of the Year
  4. Women’s Doubles Player of the Year
  5. Mixed Doubles Player of the Year.

 

The method of identifying the top 10 in each of these categories was used for the first time in 2024 and this was very successful, however the Awards Commission has refined the points system a little to balance more the weighting on the two criteria.

The method to decide the top 10 in each of the above is as follows:

1.Criteria 1 – Total Ranking Points Earned – for each player / pair in each discipline above over the 12 month eligibility period (1 December to 30 November each year).

and

2. Criteria 2 – Rating by an Expert Panel – On-court qualities of players in each discipline as rated by each of the five Expert Panel members in each Designated Tournament (see attached for the list of Tournaments for 2025). Panel members use the following to select the top three players in each discipline / each tournament and select three players are selected by each panel member and ranked 1st, 2nd, and 3rd based on:

  • Performance
  • Sportsmanship
  • Entertainment & Promotional Value
  • Fan Popularity
  • Overall contribution to the success of the tournament.

 

Once the 12 month period ends, a top 10 player/pair list for Criteria 1 (total ranking for the player/pair for each discipline) is determined for each player/pair and ranked 1st (highest total ranking) to 10th (lowest of the top 10 total rankings).

Secondly, points for all the top 3 players for each tournament for the 12 months from the expert panel are identified and added to the scores for Criteria 1 – the top 10 players / pairs.

Please see the attached for the updated rules for the Player of the Year Awards and the steps taken to determine the top 10, and then finally a short list of players / pairs which will be communicated to the media and membership, with an announcement of the winners at the Gala Awards Ceremony at the end of the year.

BWF Awards Regulations (linked here).

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