Comeba Badminton comeba.org
During the recent Annual General Meeting of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) held in Bangkok (Thailand), which was attended by all the COMEBA Board members, the following two important issues were debated and voted:
- Change in the Scoring System; and
- Change in the Service Height.
The proposed Change in the Scoring System envisaged the replacement of the current format of the Best of Three Sets of 21 points each with the Best of Five Sets of 11 points each. In accordance with the BWF Statute, a two-thirds majority was required for such change to be implemented.
Since this majority was not obtained, this proposal was withdrawn and the Scoring System will therefore remain unchanged.
The proposed Change in the Service Height envisaged the replacement of the current requirement that the shuttle is hit below the server’s waist to the shuttle being hit below the height of 1.15 metres from the surface of the court. Once again, in accordance with the BWF Statute, a two-thirds majority was required for the implementation of the proposed change.
In this case, the required two-thirds majority was actually obtained; therefore, this proposal was approved.
However, the change will not be implemented immediately. The BWF was given a mandate to continue testing this service height and to identify proper electronic technology that would enable Service Judges and Umpires to measure the service height correctly.
