BWF: get with the program

cobalt

cobalt

Moderator
Staff member
I have started this thread to discuss various issues that concern the BWF, their rules and regulatins, laws as well as the manner of their administration and promotion of this game of ours.

Why does it matter? The BWF controls the running of this game professionally, and in the international arena. How well the BWF manages and promotes the game, affects the future of our game. Therefore, we do have a stake and interest in what the BWF does, and how it performs. What is discussed here is always available to the BWF for review, and if we are able to point out specific areas of weakness or inadequate methods etc, the weight of public opinion and involvement can motivate them to make positive changes or amendments where required.

This is as much our game as it is the professional's and association's. The money we spend on equipment, clubs, clothes, travelling to support or teams, subscription to live TV broadcasts.... is what keeps the sport going to a large extent. We are very real stakeholders in the game. Therefore, it is or duty as well to voice our opinions on things we consider inadequate or worth changing.

I only ask that we try to conduct this in as orderly a fashion as possible, and give our views in a thoughtful and considerate manner. :) Of course, passions will rise over some issues, but let us all remember that we are all of us in it for the love of the game, and that is what transcends all borders, seas, colours and ethnicities.
 
I'd like to sart off with Code of Conduct jurisdiction....

Most international sports federations, councils or Associations have very clear-cut, explicit and exhaustive documents listing regulations, laws, codes of conduct for players as well as officials, etc etc.

Most of these federations, councils etc are also governed by certain national or international law, and this is clearly spelt out in the documents. For example...

10.5​
The Code of Conduct is governed by and shall be construed in accordancewith English law. Strictly without prejudice to the arbitration provisions of Articles 5 and 8 of the Code of Conduct, disputes relating to the Code of Conduct shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

I wonder, does the BWF have such a provision? I have scanned all the documents available on the BWF website, but have not been able to find any provision for jurisdiction.


I also came upon this very interesting clause in the Disciplinary Regulations section of the BWF Handbook:
​
3.7.14 The fact that a Disciplinary Committee meeting is being held, the name of the respondent, and the proceedings themselves shall normally be kept confidential by the BWF. This shall not preclude the BWF from confirming outline details if it is evident that the media are aware of the meeting. The decision of the Committee shall be publicised at the BWF’s discretion.

Why is the secrecy and "confidentiality" necessary? This is not the case with committees in other sports, who often make it a point to have as much transparency as possible in all their matters/proceedings. The BWF sure has some very strange and questionable clauses.
 
With regards to promotion:
I would like to see more stats in the game for more interest i.e average smash speed, fastest smash, points one from rear/front, unforced error rate for career, season and tournament all laid out nicely for people to see on website and even used in coverage.

They could have more interesting glory prizes like fastest smash of the tournament gets some cash. Have smash speeds swoosh up in nicely formatted coulorful writing.

No venue has any real glamour make one and make it special e.g(f1 has monaco, golf has augusta etc)

Stop treating all the events equally. I know this will rub everyone up the wrong way but people(not die hard badders fans) like to support individuals more than a pair. The main event is mens singles, make it so. A 25-45 minute match in amongst all of the other events is not good enough. I think to enable this there should be more breaks and more games/points per match. A match should last about 1h 30mins for people to really get their teeth into it.

Invent different point scoring formats and match formats for one off events. i.e china v the world, yearly event, 12 in each team play to 7 each match, everybody has to play all appropriate disciplines md/ms/xd same for ladies so doubles players play singles etc. Make a big deal of the event maybe host it in the newly proposed(by myself) glamourous venue(vegas maybe). You have to think to yourself how many people that don't play/watch badminton flick on to the all england and think ooo this is an exciting event.

Cut out the country team events bar special ones like above preposed. it confuses this sport particularly. Badminton is an individual/pairs sport but china seem to play for china even outwith these comps and most players are under some country setup which is not commercial enough. By all means have players sign to international teams and have world cup comps this way(this would allow not so good countries like an american team/uk team to buy world class players hence making the sport a lot more popular in that country(also bringing western endorsements). This also ties in with the fact that there is not enough individuality. All succesfully commercialised sports have there characters. The only person of any interest in this way is lin dan and his lashing out antics lcw/taufik yes and no(for a non baddie fan).

I could go on but what i am trying to say is badminton where i am from and where the game needs to be expanded(the western world) we need to create excitement. My wife doesn't watch golf,football etc but she still knows about the ryder cup, the champions league some of the players and she would show interest to some extent when these events are on. Badminton players characters are completely hidden behind countries team doors.

Popularity commercialisation may be more apparent in asia but it is not growing outwith this continent, unlike all other succesfull sports that span continents in a highly commercialised way.
 
Nice one cobalt, now we can go straight to the points. I'm now at my desk with my iPhone, so you guys go ahead first I'll join up soon.
 
You dun need to be a rocket scientist to come out with ideas, one can certainly emulate whatever popular format currently played out in other sports. Such as those in tennis, squash, golf or even football world cup. If one seeks for a change, that has to come from the top. I mean the governing body or respective council needs to have a strong character with vision. I always wonder how many of those council members or the top brass in the BWF are past professional players, this helps as it takes one to know one. Before we start tackling real sportsmanship issues, my problem is that currently the players are playing too many competitions. My other problems are sponsorship and prize money. You may say they go hand in hand with the rest of the issue. So, where do we start, other than from the top?

P/s i want to see more female players dress appropriately, stop borrowing their male team members' spare shirts and shorts! Female Chinese players pls study the Japanese counterparts.
 
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More promotion ideas.

Spectator/fan involvement at matches and tournaments has been limited to local attendance, and online or television viewership. It is mostly passive in nature. The DO does have some limited type of involvement with their daily questions, where one person with the correct answer gets a prize. But in other sports, fan involvement goes much further. For example:

Play of the Day. At the end of the day's play, "x" number of outstanding plays/points are selected for the excitement and awe they have generated. Fans and spectators can then go to a website and vote their play-of-the-day.

Caption/Quote of the Day. A panel or the commentators select a freeze-frame of a picture of some moment during the day's play, and it is put up live and on the website for fans to send in a caption or quote. The winning caption/quote is showed throughout the next day on live television, as well as posted on the website. The winner also gets a substantial prize.

More ideas out there? :D
 
I too would like to see more fan involvement. Imagine the thrill of allowing them to rub shoulders with some of the players. I know it's a time commitment on the players but this is what badminton needs and differentiates it from other sports.

A suggestion would be to have a draw of fan names, say 8 or 12. On the qualifying day (Tues), let them have an hour with 3 or 4 players (randomly selected by BWF, all players must do their part), chatting, hitting, pics and autographs. Maybe even sponsor prizes. I'm sure this idea can be tweaked but it requires understanding from BWF, the associations and players their contribution is to increase the popularity of the sport.
 
On Finals day, in between matches, get fans involved again. Again draw fan names (maybe 4) and have a few quick contests like fastest smash, shot accuracy, etc. You'll be surprised how crowds love this kind of thing. There are 4 opportunities between matches. I'm sure BWF can come up with ideas other than loud music and dancing troupes.
 
I liked what I saw in the French Open SS. Probably the best so far in terms of providing interesting TV angles. This should be a solid base for BWF to investigate more innovative TV angles.

I think in between matches or even during some (there are so many) bring in celebrities or players to the commentary booth and hook them up to a mic. It'll be a great opportunity for fans to see a different side of players and celebrities who have a love for badminton. And not to mention we get to see the face of the voice behind "How on Earth did he get that..." :p

We need to promote personalities in badminton. It's rather a faceless sport. I know language is often a barrier but that's what interpreters are paid for. Also, a roving reporter in the crowd or on court side adds to the "in the moment" impact.
 
I'd like to see more TV time from the end of the court when the shuttle is in play.

From this angle, the perception of speed is much better than the high up angle. It doesn't have to be much extra time but I think it's aesthetic to have it during a rally for the variety. After all, we are trying to keep up interest.

BTW madbad, great suggestions
 
Enforcing uniform requirements for LiveStream

Recent GPG tournaments have taken place without the Livestream feature being available online. And this has not just inconvenienced thousands of BCers but many, many more all around the world.

Why is it so difficut to enforce LS connections at all BWF-sanctioned tournaments? The technology is a no-brainer. The equipment is almost always present. I'm sure all Umpires know how to use the stuff. The cost for implementation is fairly negligible. The uplink (DSL/ADSL) conections are almost always available. And yet....

BWF can easily make compliance a mandatory requirement. The ongoing Korea Open GPG has no LS. Yet, the ongoing Indian sub-juniors nationals had LS. I can't remember if the Macau GPG had LS :confused::( (getting old!)

But the Dutch Open had LS. The Irish International has LS.

I think all tournaments from GP grade and above must sign compliance to provide LS connectivity as a mandatory service. I don't know anything about the costs, but I would be very surprised if it is more than negligible, in context of the overall tournament costs.

Come on BWF!!! Get with it!!!:crying:
 
Thirteen posts and no one's mentioned anything about match fixing?






But I guess there's none so back to your regular programming, I guess. :)
 
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Now seems an appropriate time to revive this thread....

BWF have disqualified 4 WD pairs at the OG 2012, but will it all stop there?

What about the people in this sordid drama who planned and strategised the moves that led to the infamous non-matches? Will they be made accountable? How will BWF present it's plan of action to the world?

There are many, many questions that arise; some are new, but sadly, most are pretty old.

What do you think BWF needs to do to reinstall the faith?
 
It is pretty disappointing they don't have a smash speed gun at the Olympics or if they have it has not been used once by the commentary or on screen. They have increased coverage (uk) for the event which is great but the execution has been very poor. There have been no interviews shown, no behind the scenes footage, no build up nothing. In game has been poor commentary, no smash speeds and crazy bright pink everywhere to give you a headache. The stats have been a total joke, the after game stats flashing up on screen have been amount of shuttles(who cares), time of game and points WOW what an insight. This massive opportunity to promote badminton to the world only comes every 4 years and no effort has been made at all to sieze this opportunity. Why not?

edit: Website has ok match stats
 
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Prolly "insufficient" coordination and defining of info priorites between BWF and the official broadcasters? :rolleyes:
It appears to me that BWF suggestions and specs (I'm assuming this actually happened, of course - for all I know, BWF didn't do any) were completely brushed aside by the official broadcasters, who possibly wanted to pump more finances into more revenue-generating streams.

Interestingly enough, TS (a tried, tested and trusted system and resource) was not used. Hmmmm....
 
cobalt said:
Prolly "insufficient" coordination and defining of info priorites between BWF and the official broadcasters? :rolleyes:
It appears to me that BWF suggestions and specs (I'm assuming this actually happened, of course - for all I know, BWF didn't do any) were completely brushed aside by the official broadcasters, who possibly wanted to pump more finances into more revenue-generating streams.

Interestingly enough, TS (a tried, tested and trusted system and resource) was not used. Hmmmm....
Click to expand...

Think you are right. If BWF was my business I would have been super pro active in what was broadcasted and even covered any additional costs, it would be worth it.
 
Beaten Baun set to get her wish

Saturday August 4, 2012
http://thestar.com.my/sports/olympics/story.aspx?file=/2012/8/4/olympics/11797226&sec=Olympics

Excerpts:

..The former world No. 1 from Denmark was bitterly disappointed with one crucial line decision during her 21-15, 22-20 loss to Saina Nehwal, the Commonwealth champion from India.

...There was also a close line decision incident involving Olympic champion Lin Dan at 12-5 in the final game of his men’s singles quarter-final with Japan’s Sho Sasaki.

...“Sometimes at critical moments it can make such a difference,” Baun said.

“There are times when a match can go either way. I really still think that shuttle was out and that we should have gone to a third game.

“So it would be really good to be able to be able to appeal to computer replays as they do in quite a few other sports.”

This is what is likely to happen next year, according to Paisan Rangsikitpho, the vice-president of the Badminton World Federation (BWF), the sport’s international governing body.

“We have done some research and I think it is likely we will use computer replays on an experimental basis in selected major events around the world in 2013, he said.

“It won’t be HawkEye (a system used for ruling on line-calls in tennis and lbw decisions in cricket), which is not 100% accurate, but there is something else we have been looking at, and which we would like to try.

“It’s time we had it, because we get some issues, and the crowds like it (replays). We need it.” — AFP
 
Here is the latest episode from BWF, and it is one worth watching to the end...

[video]http://www.youtube.com/badmintonworldtv#p/u[/video]
 
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