http://www.worldbadminton.net/Portal/desktopdefault.aspx?tabid=10&ItemID=1792


World Champ Xia misses out on wildcard spot

Reigning World Champion Xia Xuanze’s prospects of defending his title at the 2005 IBF World Championships in Anaheim have taken a dive, as the International Badminton Federation has today announced it will not be using its wildcard allocation for the world meet (15-21 August).

This means the wildcard places in each of the five events will instead be offered to the next eligible players in line from the qualifying world ranking list of 19 May.

For Xia – men’s singles gold medallist at the 2003 event in Birmingham (ENG) – his last chance of defending his crown now rests with the Chinese Badminton Association.<SPAN>&nbsp; </SPAN>If he’s to compete at the Arrowhead Pond in August, they would need to drop one of their three star shuttlers – Lin Dan, Bao Chunlai and Chen Hong – to make way for the 27-year-old from Zhejiang.

The next eligible player in the men’s singles list is Vietnam’s promising shuttler Nguyen Tien Mihn, who was one of the first intake of players at the IBF World Training Centre in Saarbruecken, Germany.

Peru’s women’s singles player Claudia Rivero and Scots men’s doubles pair Graeme Smith and Andrew Bowman will also get the nod in place of the vacant wildcard spots, as will Leena Loytomaki and Saara Hynninen of Finland in women’s doubles, and Lithuanians Tomas Dovidaitis and Kristina Dovidaityte in mixed.

As the host association, USA badminton also have a wildcard entry for each of the five events, and are set to hold trials later this month to determine who will compete.

Meanwhile, National Associations have until today (2 June) to confirm whether their players from this first wave of invitations will compete at the event. An updated list of qualifiers will be published on Monday 6 June.

It didn't say why they change their mind. IBF flip-flop. :mad:

http://www.worldbadminton.net/Portal/desktopdefault.aspx?tabid=10&ItemID=1792

When will they make the decision??

It didn't say why they change their mind. IBF flip-flop. :mad:

Guess they don't want a repeat champ =/

It didn't say why they change their mind. IBF flip-flop. :mad:
It's easy to guess and summed up in one word - Olympics.

Badminton has come under criticism for not having wide enough participation. Look at those nationalities that become eligible when IBF does not use its wildcard.

This becomes very interesting. The next World Championships is in Spain so some of their players with low ranking get automatic qualification. Perhaps we might see the subsequent 2 world championships (i.e 2007 & 2008) go to weaker badminton nations (if they bid).

I
Perhaps we might see the subsequent 2 world championships (i.e 2007 & 2008) go to weaker badminton nations (if they bid).

The 2007 World Champhionship is confirmed to be held in Malaysia.:)

Participation or World's best?

With respect to these players unless the have potentiatial and depending on draw just seems like a round one appreanace.

If IBF want's to imporve this situation why did it get rid of Thomas and Uber Cup zone qualifiers?

maybe we can increase the places in Thomas Cup & Uber Cup from 8 teams to for example 16 teams?? 4 team in one group.. Group winners advance into semifinal, or Group top 2 finishers advance into knock-out stage.:D

Participation or World's best?

With respect to these players unless the have potentiatial and depending on draw just seems like a round one appreanace.

If IBF want's to imporve this situation why did it get rid of Thomas and Uber Cup zone qualifiers?
Those are team events - WC/OC are about individuals (most of the time). Is it in M'sia? I might go then :D It'll be a wild party.

Seriously, that makes my 'weaker badminton country' theory go down the drain...unless IBF had no better alternative from the bids tabled.

We need a WC in Australia!!

I feel sad for Xia, I want to see him play again. :crying: :crying:

Is it in M'sia? I might go then :D It'll be a wild party.



This was announced on 8 May 2005 in Beijing by IBF President Kang Young Joong. the IBF dicided to give the right to Kuala Lumpur through democratic procedures after fierce competition in bid to host the wc 2007 between malaysia and denmark... KL will be the first Asian city to host WC since 1989... if not mistaken, the past few editions were held in europe i do agree that WC for present moments could be held more frequently in Europe since badminton is gradually gaining interest in Europe... however, we might need one or two in between to be held outside europe, maybe like South America, Australasia, Asia, Africa??!!

Yes, not forgeeting that Australia has managed one World Juniors in 1998 ( Gong Runia was the Junior champ then, along with Chan Chong Min beating Cai Yun) , and one Thomas/Uber Cupa Asian zone qualifier in 2002 (last time prior to that was 1988)

Unfortuantely these were all in Melbourne.

I feel sad for Xia, I want to see him play again. :crying: :crying:

me too.............:(

AFAIK, IBF never officially said they were going to use their wildcards. And they don't have the obligation to do so. In circumtances like when a top player gets injured and could not get enough ranking points to qualify, then it will be right if IBF gives a wildcard to that player. But in normal circumstances, nobody should wrong IBF for not excercising their wildcard option. Frankly, giving a wildcard to Xia when he could not qualify on merit would be unfair to the other top nations.

AFrankly, giving a wildcard to Xia when he could not qualify on merit would be unfair to the other top nations.

same goes to gong ruina

Anyway , what's the condition when Peter Gade was given the wildcard to participate in the last WC?

Anyway , what's the condition when Peter Gade was given the wildcard to participate in the last WC?

He got it instead of Henrawan I think mainly because Peter was more popular and would attract more fans. But I still think defending champions should be given a chance to defend their titles.

Wat the heck man........i thought the other thread mentioned he alrdy has been given the wild card.......so sad for him..first olympic now this... :crying:

Personally i think defending champion should automatically given a slot to play for the tournament. No necessary have to qualify based on ranking points. And its a little embarrasing to be given a wildcard entry when you are the defending champion.

Personally i think defending champion should automatically given a slot to play for the tournament. No necessary have to qualify based on ranking points. And its a little embarrasing to be given a wildcard entry when you are the defending champion.

I agree with you, this should be automatic!

Personally i think defending champion should automatically given a slot to play for the tournament. No necessary have to qualify based on ranking points. And its a little embarrasing to be given a wildcard entry when you are the defending champion.

Well, just for the record, I don't agree. It's enough that the defending champion has already got the honour of winning the world title. He should have to qualify like the other players for the next one.

However, I would have preferred a change of qualification rule to "anyone in the top 20 (or 16 or some other number) would qualify regardless of nationality". If China has 10 players in the top 20, then all should qualify. What is the meaning of a world championship if 6 of the top 20 are not eligible? It is after all an individual event. There are 44 other places, so that's plenty to spread entries around the world.

However, I would have preferred a change of qualification rule to "anyone in the top 20 (or 16 or some other number) would qualify regardless of nationality". If China has 10 players in the top 20, then all should qualify. What is the meaning of a world championship if 6 of the top 20 are not eligible? It is after all an individual event. There are 44 other places, so that's plenty to spread entries around the world.

In the current instance, if the top 20 are given certain entries, these players would qualify:

Kuan BH
Sairol Amar
Xia XZ

Laybourn/Steffensen
Limpele/Eng Hian
Chew/Choong
Andersen/Lamp

Du/Yu

Lamp/Harder
Roebuck/Parker
Lindley/Rayappan

At most only four entries per event. The tournament would have been richer with them.

Well, just for the record, I don't agree. It's enough that the defending champion has already got the honour of winning the world title. He should have to qualify like the other players for the next one.

I think it is better for spectator's interest if the titleholder can defend his title.
This might be less of a problem now that world champs will be held every year (at the end of the qualification period, the titleholder will still have the previous world champs points counting in his world ranking).

However, I would have preferred a change of qualification rule to "anyone in the top 20 (or 16 or some other number) would qualify regardless of nationality". If China has 10 players in the top 20, then all should qualify. What is the meaning of a world championship if 6 of the top 20 are not eligible? It is after all an individual event. There are 44 other places, so that's plenty to spread entries around the world.

This used to be the case before (first 16 qualified regardless of the nationality) but was changed to increase nations representativity...

At most only four entries per event. The tournament would have been richer with them.

Sure, but a few less nations would qualify their players...
Of course, overall I would prefer to see these top players competing... :rolleyes:

ya i agree with you for this 3 is too little.they should let players enter the tournament by merit.and limiting to 3 entries is too little.u cannot really ensure that china for example in ms will sweep away everything including the 2 bronze medals.this is crazy.i really feel sorry for indonesia and denmark md.they have really produce more than 3 quality pairs.

http://www.worldbadminton.net/Portal/documents/wc_phase_two.xls

The above is the acceptance to the first wave of invitation. Basically, some players would turn down their invitation, so IBF will have to have a second round of invitation and so forth until the draw size (64) is fulfilled.

Just looking at it, there are quite a number of invitations turned down for the MD. IBF will keep inviting until they reach those ranked 150, and then they will go to the top of the list again and start inviting those not-yet-invited, as long as the rule of "maximum 4 entries per NOC" is obeyed.

So, basically, there is an outside chance of Xia getting invited, although Kuan BH will get invited first if it comes to that.

I would say that Limpele/Eng Hian have a higher chance of getting invited.

True, there is still a chance of these top players getting invited, but it is still rather unlikely... :rolleyes:

I remember in 2003 both singles draws were complete (64 entrants) without reaching 150th rank, but none of the doubles draws were complete... :rolleyes:
So there is still hope for Eng Hian & Flandy Limpele! :)

Some similiar situation in football now. Liverpool as the Champions League winner this year still fighting for their chance to defend the title next season as they finished out of the qualification spot in the Premiership League..

(for those who don't know about this, Champions League is the top level games in European football, teams that will play in the coming season are determined by their position in domestic league this season)

But mentioned there, there is another similiar example when Real Madrid as the Champions League defending champion in 2000 (but finished outside qualification spot in Spanish League) was handed a chance to play in 2001, by sacrificing another team's place.

I just feel that it's always interesting to see the defending champions playing, although he/she might not in top form already... So, will glad to see if Xia Xuanze will feature in US soon...

However, I would have preferred a change of qualification rule to "anyone in the top 20 (or 16 or some other number) would qualify regardless of nationality". If China has 10 players in the top 20, then all should qualify. What is the meaning of a world championship if 6 of the top 20 are not eligible? It is after all an individual event. There are 44 other places, so that's plenty to spread entries around the world.


This is something IBF want to balance between participation and meritocracy. Rules will be always changed when necessary. For example, rules has been changed over recent years (at least one new rule introduced every year) in Formula One, after only one or two teams dominating the sports, to see more competition and participation. This is for good sake of the development of the sports, in some context, otherwise, people will start to lose interest as the dominating side always win (something happen in women events of badminton)

ANother example would be in the table tennis, where there are even more strict rules to prevent the Chinese from dominating the sports. Each nation is only allowed to send two players/two pairs in the Olympic Games, and they must be drawn in the same half, to prevent an all-Chinese final, which had happened especially in WS and WD, lots more to mention. Chinese coach even considering some time purposely letting off some titles in WC, so that the ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation) wouldn't impose more rules against the Chinese. The ITTF is worrying that a too-dominating game will deteriotate the sports, and people start to get bored because there are less competition...

However, this hasn't happened in Badminton especially in the men events, but I feel that what IBF has been doing is towards more participation globally.

I think another problem in badminton is that no matter what tournment it is other than TC/UC, like WC and AE, people look at the where the players are from first instead of treating them as individuals. Why people will pay to watch Sampras vs Agassi? But no one seems to care much if Chen Hong vs Lin Dan.

I think another problem in badminton is that no matter what tournment it is other than TC/UC, like WC and AE, people look at the where the players are from first instead of treating them as individuals. Why people will pay to watch Sampras vs Agassi? But no one seems to care much if Chen Hong vs Lin Dan.

Yea... my opinion is that because Thomas Cup is hotter than AE, OG and WC. That's why people will be very concern where the players from, at least this is the condition in Malaysia, i don't know about other countries

Team China plays as a team, and not after individual glory. We have seen many times during a same team player vs same team player match, for one to throw it away for various tactical reasons.

It gets boring, so not many people like to watch.

I think another problem in badminton is that no matter what tournment it is other than TC/UC, like WC and AE, people look at the where the players are from first instead of treating them as individuals. Why people will pay to watch Sampras vs Agassi? But no one seems to care much if Chen Hong vs Lin Dan.

I think another problem in badminton is that no matter what tournment it is other than TC/UC, like WC and AE, people look at the where the players are from first instead of treating them as individuals. Why people will pay to watch Sampras vs Agassi? But no one seems to care much if Chen Hong vs Lin Dan.

Not exactly true. I think most fans see the players both as individuals and also where they come from. People like to watch rivalries and people like to take sides.

If the players come from different countries, then there is obvious rivalry. Each player, as an individual, will have to fight hard to uphold both their honour and also of their country. However, if the opponent is of totally different class, there will be much less interest even from the countries concerned.

If both players are from the same country and both about equally strong, then there will probably be some rivalry (or perceived rivalry) between the two, and people will be interested. Like Yang Yang and Zhao Jianhua for instance. Or in current times, Hafiz and Lee CW, who are additionally from different camps as well.

The problem is that when a lower-ranked player beats a higher-ranked countryman, people think that this is fixed. But if people start sensing blood, for instance, when Kenneth J is equally high-spirited facing Peter Gade as he was facing Bao CL, then people will be interested.