BWF president to be limited to four terms

The Badminton World Federation also approves the introduction of “geographical and gender representation” in its council.

The BWF was ranked third in International Federation Governance. - GETTY IMAGES (REPRESENTATIVE)

The Badminton World Federation placed a limit of four terms on its president’s position during its virtual Annual General Meeting held in Copenhagen on Saturday.

The BWF membership also approved changes to the constitution ensuring “at least 30 per cent of each gender on council and among the representatives from each continental region.” The decision was in line with the recent directive of the International Olympic Committee to maintain gender equality in decision-making positions of its National Olympic Committees by 2020.

The BWF membership also passed proposals to include the Chair of the Para Badminton Athletes’ Commission in its council.

“I want to congratulate the membership for passing the landmark vote to approve the constitutional change to ensure gender equality on the BWF council and for taking another important step to improve our governance practice by bringing in a vetting process for officials of the BWF,” BWF president Poul-Erik Hoyer said in a communique.

“The virtual AGM today has allowed us to complete our governance requirements to host our AGM every year before 31 July, but also to deliver some important decisions to ensure we continuously improve our governance practice over time.”

‘Fantastic news’

Hoyer informed that the BWF was ranked third by the Summer Olympic International Federations in International Federation governance. “This is fantastic news for badminton that we are doing very well in this area... it’s a great sign for the future of badminton and I congratulate everyone on these outstanding results.”

International tournaments are currently suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In May, the BWF unveiled a revised international calendar to salvage the remainder of the season. However, with the global health crisis showing no signs of abating, many events were cancelled from the reworked calendar.