Latest Badminton News

**pcll99** · 03-10-2011, 08:57 PM

I read from a Chinese website that there is a new BWF requirement that female players must wear skirt starting from May...

But I couldn't find this announcement at the BWF site...

is there a site which reports the latest badminton news in English? thanks..

**sayakeren** · 05-09-2011, 08:56 AM

It is now official. You can read it here http://bwfbadminton.org/news_item.aspx?id=48377

Clothing Regulations: Implementation Guidelines out
Wednesday, May 04, 2011

The Badminton World Federation’s (BWF) new clothing regulations making it mandatory for women players to wear a skirt is applicable only to Level 1 to 3 tournaments. This means only the top levels of the sport, Grand Prix events and above is affected by the rule which will be implemented on 1 June 2011.

And contrary to some misconceptions, the mandatory rule does not mean that women players have to discard shorts or track bottoms in favour of skirts. Nor does it mean they have to wear short skirts.

Players will continue to wear shorts if they wish but simply wear a skirt over the top of the shorts, as is often practiced already by some players. And the BWF has developed implementation guidelines to go alongside the new Regulation to ensure that it will not in any way discriminate against any religious or other beliefs.

“The new ruling seems to have been misinterpreted as to mean that women cannot wear shorts or tights or track bottoms when they compete and must only use a skirt. This is not true,” said BWF Deputy President Paisan Rangsikitpho.

“Neither are we asking women to play in short skirts. It has never been the intention of the BWF to portray women as sexual objects, and nor is that what we are doing. Players can still wear all of the above and from the guidelines it should be clear that these do not push any women to wear clothing they are not comfortable with. However, they have to wear a skirt over these articles of clothing, which is already commonly used by many female players.

“We need to be able to differentiate the women’s game and the ruling is part of a larger campaign to enhance the presentation profile of the sport. This is to help attract a wider target group amongst both younger and older people, and amongst both women and men, where an aesthetic and stylish presentation of the players is certainly an important factor. As such, the BWF has developed guidelines to ensure the Member Associations and players fully understand the new rule.”

Rangsikitpho was also happy that several players have welcomed the rule and understand the intention behind it. However, he explained that it was necessary to make it a mandatory rule as the sport becomes more professional. The rule also gives sufficient room for the players to choose comfortable clothing and still live up to the intentions of the regulations. BWF has had clothing regulations for many years in line with what is the practice in most other International Federations.

The implementation of the rule, which was supposed to be enforced on 1 May 2011, has been delayed to 1 June to provide an opportunity for its Members to fully understand the reasons behind the new rule leading up to its 28 May AGM in Qingdao, China.

BWF have already taken several important and positive steps to raise the profile of women in Badminton, including offering equal prize money for men and women disciplines, standardized 21-point rally system for men and women disciplines and equal male and female participation across the events offered – men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles. The clothing regulation is yet another example of how BWF are putting focus on the women’s game to raise the profile.

**RyuHayabusa999** · 05-09-2011, 09:42 AM

Yahoo!!!!! BWF!!!!! Salute to all female players!!!!

**madbad** · 05-09-2011, 10:12 AM

There are a couple of active threads on this topic on BC already. I think the mods can merge this into one of them and close this one.

**event** · 05-10-2011, 03:11 AM

Originally Posted by pcll99

I read from a Chinese website that there is a new BWF requirement that female players must wear skirt starting from May...

But I couldn't find this announcement at the BWF site...

is there a site which reports the latest badminton news in English? thanks..

In answer to your more general question, there is a site that attempts to report the latest news in English and in this instance, Badzine already had 3 items up on this issue by the time you posted, with more coming 2 days and 6 weeks later.