No decision made on new badminton scoring system

No decision made on new badminton scoring system

Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Guangzhou, China

The International Badminton Federation (IBF) failed Sunday to make the
long-awaited decision on the new scoring system during its Annual General
Meeting (AGM)'s plenary meeting in Guangzhou, China.

In the past year the IBF has been experimenting with the new
seven-point, best-of-five scoring system replacing the old 15-
point, best-of-three system.

The badminton world's preference has been divided ever since.

"IBF members and delegates deliberated the results and
proposals of the new scoring system but failed to make a
unanimous decision during the plenary meeting," IBF president
Korn Dabbaransi told reporters during a press conference.

"Therefore the delegates agreed to let the IBF Council discuss
and decide the proposals."

The new system was proposed by European countries to attract
more sponsors and TV coverage as the new score system enables
more breaks during a match to air advertisements.

There is also an expectation that badminton will become more
aggressive with shuttlers playing faster than in the old system.
There was also speculation that the European side wanted to break
Asia's domination by playing faster matches.

Both more TV coverage and more attacking matches were expected
to attract more spectators in a quest to gain more popularity for
badminton.

Korn also said that Denmark and England had submitted a third
scoring system of nine-point, best-of-five to be considered by
the IBF Council.

"The Council will take the final and official decision
regarding which scoring system to be used on May 18 as authorized
by the delegates," he said.

"Our members clearly stated that there has been enough time
given for the experiment. They insisted that the decision must be
taken here."

IBF chief executive Neil Cameroon said there had been mixed
reactions from various broadcasting companies on the new scoring system.

"Some of them reported that the number of spectators increased
while other organizations were not so sure with the new system,"
he told reporters.

"I must admit that there has been no increase on commercial or
sponsorships revenue nor did we expect it. It requires a longer
time."

There were 110 countries out of IBF's 141 members who attended
the AGM which also discussed other issues, such as international
representations.

The AGM will continue with meetings discussing various matters
until May 18.

IBF members agreed to increase by one-year to a total of three
years the period a defecting player must wait before they can
represent another country.

Meanwhile for the individual events, the waiting period has
been also extended from one year to two years.

"England has also submitted a proposal that a shuttler should
be a passport holder of the country he or she is wishing to
defend and not just a resident," said Korn.

During the meeting, the delegates also named three vice
presidents and three continental representatives and elected six
additional members from seven candidates for the IBF Council.
Currently there are 24 council members.

Eight-times All England champion Rudy Hartono from Indonesia
was elected, with all available 202 votes cast in his favor. He
was followed by former Chinese great Li Lingwei who got 200
votes.