# 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. Poul-Erik Høyer Larsen is the current president. The BWF has 201 member nations around the world, organized into 5 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:
| Region | Region | Confederation | Members |
| | Asia | Badminton Asia (BA) | 43 |
| | Europe | Badminton Europe (BE) | 54 |
| | Americas | Badminton Pan America (BPA) | 37 |
| | Africa | Badminton Africa | 44 |
| | Oceania | Badminton Oceania (BO) | 16 |
| Total | Total | Total | 194 |

## Presidents

Below is the list of presidents since 1934:
| No. | Years | Name | Country |
| 1 | 1934–1955 | George Alan Thomas | United Kingdom |
| 2 | 1955–1957 | John Plunkett-Dillon | Ireland |
| 3 | 1957–1959 | Brigadier Bruce Hay | United Kingdom |
| 4 | 1959–1961 | A. C. J. van Vossen | Netherlands |
| 5 | 1961–1963 | John McCallum | Ireland |
| 6 | 1963–1965 | Nils Peder Kristensen | Denmark |
| 7 | 1965–1969 | David Bloomer | United Kingdom |
| 8 | 1969–1971 | Humphrey Chilton | United Kingdom |
| 9 | 1971–1974 | Ferry Sonneville | Indonesia |
| 10 | 1974–1976 | Stuart Wyatt | United Kingdom |
| 11 | 1976–1981 | Stellan Mohlin | Sweden |
| 12 | 1981–1984 | Craig Reedie | United Kingdom |
| 13 | 1984–1986 | Poul-Erik Nielsen | Denmark |
| 14 | 1986–1990 | Ian Palmer | New Zealand |
| 15 | 1990–1993 | Arthur Jones | United Kingdom |
| 16 | 1993–2001 | Lu Shengrong | China |
| 17 | 2001–2005 | Korn Dabbaransi | Thailand |
| 18 | 2005–2013 | Kang Young-Joong | South Korea |
| 19 | 2013– | Poul-Erik Høyer Larsen | Denmark |

## 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:
Major tournaments:
* BWF World Championships
* Thomas Cup
* Uber Cup
* Sudirman Cup
* Olympic Games in co-operation with International Olympic Committee
Other major tournaments:
* BWF World Junior Championships
* BWF World Senior Championships
Para major tournaments:
* Para-Badminton World Championships
* Paralympic Games in co-operation with International Paralympic Committee (sports added since Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games)
Event(s) are no longer held regularly:
* 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:
* Level 1: BWF World Tour Finals
* Level 2: BWF World Tour Super 1000
* Level 3: BWF World Tour Super 750
* Level 4: BWF World Tour Super 500
* Level 5: BWF World Tour Super 300
* Level 6: BWF Tour Super 100
The events that were formerly held from 2007 to 2017 are:
* Super Series Premier
* Super Series
* Grand Prix Gold
* Grand Prix

### Grade 3 (B-Tier)

Grade 3 tournaments, known as Continental Circuit was sanctioned into three levels with different world ranking points awarded, as order they are:
* International Challenge
* International Series
* Future Series

## Awards

The BWF bestows special honours onto players, umpires, sponsors, and other individuals for their achievement in badminton or for their contributions to badminton.
* Lifetime Achievement
* Hall of Fame
* Herbert Scheele Trophy
* Distinguished Service
* Meritorius Service
* Certificate of Commendation
* BWF Awards
** Best Male and Female Player of the Year
** Most Promising Player of the Year

## 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.
* 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.

## Publications

* World Badminton (Journal)
* The IBF Handbook