When the BWF was founded (as the IBF), its head office was located in Cheltenham, UK. The head office was relocated to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on October 1, 2005.[3]Poul-Erik Høyer Larsen is the current president.[4] The BWF currently has 201 member nations around the world, organized into 5 continental confederations.[5]
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:[6]
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:
World Cup was suspended since 1997. However, the BWF revived the event in 2005 (with China as host) but only as an invitational tournament. China swept gold in all 5 categories.
Grade 2 (A-Tier)
Grade 2 tournaments, known as BWF World Tour was sanctioned into six levels with different world ranking points awarded, as order they are:
The BWF bestows special honours onto players, umpires, sponsors, and other individuals for their achievement in badminton or for their contributions to badminton.[9]
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.[10] In 2012 it adopted a new, streamlined logo.[11]
BWF logo 2012–present
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.[12][13]