Dear Friends, Major changes are taking place around the world and IBF is constantly growing and adapting to keep up with these changes. We are living in a global village where the whole world is close like one family. So, the role of IBF has become more important than ever, socially and historically. To fit into this role, the NEW IBF Executive Board and I will promote the following in priority: · Badminton to remain in the Summer Olympic Games · Badminton to become the No.1 racquet sport in the world · Badminton to become a popular sport that is enjoyed by everyone; rich and poor; from developed, developing and less developed nations. First of all, IBF is preparing policies to make badminton a more popular sport in more countries and to help more badminton players take part in the Olympic Games. Players from 30 countries joined in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games but in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, we expect players from more than 50 countries. IBF is also working on building World Badminton Training Centers in every continent and three fully-functional centers have already been opened. So far, 150 players from over 60 countries have been trained in Saarbrucken (Germany), Sofia (Bulgaria) and Guangzhou (China). Each player cherishes the hope to be one of their nation's athletes. In December 2005, the IBF office was successfully moved from Cheltenham, England to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I feel a strong sense of responsibility and duty as President in such an important time when IBF faces new challenges and adventures. All IBF policies have to preserve tradition and, at the same time, have to be in harmony with modern society. We have already started many new plans in various fields. These attempts are to make badminton more familiar and more accessible to more people. I believe these have a thread of connection with my management philosophy, "Noonnoppi" or "Eye-level", meaning that a company needs to understand the different needs of different people and act accordingly. IBF needs to change to fit in with modern lifestyle. Therefore, IBF should be in appropriate form to suit the IT era. IBF has introduced a new point system; an active method to make our match system more TV-friendly. We are also working on various ways to make TV broadcasts more interesting to viewers. By doing this we hope to hold the attention of young athletes and develop attractive content for new generations. Another way we are doing this is by appointing celebrities from the entertainment industry as ambassadors for badminton. The IBF council consists of 25 qualified people who were recommended by their National Federations and elected at an IBF General meeting. I know we can all play a leading role in achieving IBF goals since we are all experts from all levels of society, including entrepreneurs, like myself, professors who study sports development and, world champions and Olympic gold medal winners who have the most realistic ideas from their experiences as badminton players. Council members need to share information with each other, participate actively and give their opinions freely for democratic decision making. Committees must examine all matters thoroughly and set up proper plans for handling such matters. Decentralization of authority will be based on fulfilment of responsibilities and duties. Once decision making is done under the above system, all council member and committees have to move forward with one voice and proceed with well-coordinated effort. In this way, IBF can work with perfect unity. IBF, itself, consists of five Continental Confederations and many National Federations. While IBF is the main body setting up the fundamental policies, each Continental Confederation and National Federation carries out the policies in real arenas. They are the most important units. Policies to activate them are the most important part of the New IBF. IBF already decided Olympic funds will only be used for badminton development programs. The aim is for these development programs to meet the specific demands of each country and continent. IBF, Continental Confederations, National Federations and Professional players have the same goal, BADMINTON. All of us must keep this in mind and try together to achieve our common goals and to make the image of badminton better. After badminton becomes an official sport in the Olympic Games, it will have more opportunities to get media coverage. All players need to not only show their best at games such as the World Championship and Continental Championships, but also have a sense of duty as each of them is an ambassador for badminton. The players are the ones who will grow to become the directors and leaders of future badminton. February 28, 2006
He doesn't seem to be very awake, does he? Mr President, badminton is ALREADY an official Olympic games sport! Perhaps somebody should have checked the copy for grammatical or translation errors before it was published. It does not look very competent or professional when things as bad as this are released. Let's hope he isn't involved in drafting new badminton laws.
Well, although there are obviously big translation mistakes, this seems less stupid than Punch Gunalan's recent article. However... it is very "empty" politically !!! It seems that IBF board really lack of concrete ideas to promote badminton! How do they expect it to become number one racket sport? by miracle???
miracle? no. they plan to do it by changing scoring system every couple years...........that will fix all thier problems
I think it is a good letter. Of course there are the expected negative responses. If we look at the big picture and not take a magnifying glass to find faults with a comma here, a period there, I feel that, directionally, the new IBF is a cut above the IBFs of old. At least we can expect a far greater reach to poorer countries that were totally ignored by the old IBF, now that they have won their decades long battle to get one single vote. At least it now looks more like a United Nations instead of the 'British Empire' character of the old IBF. BTW badminton is not guaranteed a life-long tenure at the Olympics. It, like other new sports that were tried out at the Olympics, could end up on the list of sports for possible elimination, because the Olympics is too congested with too many games/sports. I also believe the great silent majority are with me on this. Or am I wrong?
Indeed, the translator got the tense wrong. The original said "After badminton became an Olympic sport, this guaranteed that there would be more opportunities for broadcasting and media exposure." It's about time we heard from Kang for a change instead of his mouthpiece? / puppeteer? Punch.
I was beginning to worry that the IBF were going to have to go without a Taneepak endorsement on this one. But it's OK the cavalry have arrived. Let's take a look at the spin. No comment on the obvious shortcomings of the letter - just a statement that it is a good one. Clearly, professionalism does not matter. A complete pass on the fact that the president thinks the sport is not in the Olympics, other than to say that it could be kicked out - as if that were the choicest piece of wisdom ever spoken. And "the expected negative responses" can be ignored because they are put forward by malcontents who are not concerned with the sport's welfare in the hands of a bunch of incompetents . And, of course, democracy calls for one member one vote with is good (ignoring the scope for political gerrymandering, bribery and corruption). And finally, a masterful plea that the silent majority is on the side of the establishment which, because anybody who speaks up to the contrary is one of the above-mentioned malcontents, can never be disproved. We'll hear more of this one, I'm sure. Welcome back Taneepak! We've missed your open-minded independence.
The official Olympic website says this about badminton: "Especially popular in Asia and Europe today, badminton became a full competition sport at the Olympic Games in 1992." Perhaps you could tell me why you say I am spinning.
Being olympic is not all, just have a look at the draws of China Masters. This illustrates once again IBF's failure to organize international calendar properly. This article is just politically empty. In French, we would say he is "selling wind" which means there are lots of big words with nothing concrete behind them! But as I said, at least what he says makes sense, so it is always better than Punch Gunalan...
And why is it that draw of the China Masters is so pitiful? When would have been a better date? Sometimes IBF fail to organize properly. Other times, it's just that no one is interested.
It is catastrophic because there are very few players entering. The problem is not the date, it is reorganizing stars and world ranking points as already discussed in another thread (http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30309). The grand prix circuit is becoming ridiculous, and by its stasis, IBF is just leaving things get worse and worse, rather than reacting and anticipating...
For example, IBF have been going on about Superseries for more than 10 years now, but we still haven't seen anything concrete, and when reading this article or PG's one, it just seems they have forgotten all about it...
it is not a "fact that the president thinks the sport is not in the Olympics" you made that up. edit: I emphasised "official" in case there was a distinction I was unaware of
No I didn't. I'm basing my statement on what he said in his own press release. If he says this: "After badminton becomes an official sport in the Olympic Games, it will have more opportunities to get media coverage" I think I am entitled to infer that he thinks that badminton is not yet an Olympic sport, don't you?
Are you forgetting that it has already been shown that the president said it correctly? His words were: 배드민턴이 올림픽 정식 종목이 된 이후 방송 및 언론에 더 많이 노출되는 기회가 보장되었다. You yourself speculated that it might be a translation problem and I confirmed that suspicion. Make up your mind. Are you accusing the IBF of having bad translators or are you still hoping to convince us that the IBF President is completely out to lunch about the sport's Olympic status?
Well, I think it is clearly unprofessional to release that article without a correct translation. Of course it is a detail, but these sorts of details add to IBF's image of lack of seriousness, amateurism etc... Even if this is nowhere near as ridiculous as IBF changing badminton rules every two years...
I have to admit I missed your correction. I''l trust you interpreting ability and integrity. I have not previously visited that site as I don't speak Korean. I certainly was not spinning as I was using the information available to me. Non-Korean speakers, or those who have not seen the original language release, will no doubt still think he is "out to lunch" as you put it. Which comes back to the point about the lack of professionalism among the IBF members and staff bringing the sport into disrepute.
