Hello folks, don't know if anyone has posted this before in this forum, but i read in another badminton(badminton-indonesia.com) website, that IBF is planning to start somekind of an International League play. The system will be similar to that of soccer. As translated from the article, according to Punch Gunalan, the league will start play in 2009. He said there have been several private individuals/countries who are interested in supporting the idea by providing the necessary finances, even to the degree of offering lots of money as prizes. In the early phase of the league, the main field will be Men, using most likely the same system as Thomas Cup:3 singles and 2 doubles. The participants are expected to come from 16 countries and divided into 2 pools. Every country is required to have 2 local players and they can offer contracts to other players from different countries, just like in soccer league. The time of the league will run for about 3 months and the rules will be very clear and professional, especially on player contracts issues. Someone asked, "why start in 2009?", which Punch replied, "so all the participant countries will have plenty of time to prepare the teams". Also, the article mentioned that New York has offered IBF to hold a badminton tournament in New York, esp. after the upcoming WC. My questions and opinion now is: 1. how will they select which countries "qualifies"? 2. if so, will the 2 groups be a collection of nations within one big geographical area(s) 3. how will the logistics is managed(ie. which countries and where they will play etc.). If logistic issue is the case, boy, it could take a lot of finances in setting and actually run this league.. and 4. will there be any current tournaments which will be "sacrificed" or cancelled for this new league??.. Hmm, very interesting issue...we shall see..
