Editing Badminton (section)

==Organization==

===Governing bodies===
{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2009}}

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) is the internationally recognized governing body of the sport responsible for the regulation of tournaments and approaching fair play. Five regional confederations are associated with the BWF, the rest are unaffiliated, or are minor in comparison.

* Asia: [[Badminton Asia Confederation]] (BAC)
* Africa: [[Badminton Confederation of Africa]] (BCA)
* Americas: [[Badminton Pan Am]] (North America and South America belong to the same confederation; BPA)
* Europe: [[Badminton Europe]] (BE)
* Oceania: [[Badminton Oceania]] (BO)
Unaffiliated:
* Canada: [[Badminton Canada]]
* America: [[USA Badminton]]
* Philippines: [[Philippine Badminton Association]]
* Japan: [[Nippon Badminton Association]]
* North Macedonia: [[Macedonian Badminton Federation]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://badminton.com.mk/ |title=БАДМИНТОН ФЕДЕРАЦИЈА НА МАКЕДОНИЈА |publisher=Macedonian Badminton Federation |access-date=18 April 2025 }}</ref>
* Spain: [[Spanish Badminton Federation]]
* North Korea (DPRK): [[Badminton Association of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea]]
* South Korea: [[Badminton Korea Association]]
* Portugal: [[Federação Portuguesa de Badminton]]

===Competitions===

[[File:Badminton men's doubles.jpg|thumb|upright|A men's doubles match. The blue lines are those for the badminton court. The other coloured lines denote uses for other sports – such complexity being common in multi-use sports halls.]]
[[File:Beatriz Corrales.JPG|thumb|upright|Spanish [[Beatriz Corrales]] at the 2015 Finnish Open Badminton Championships in [[Vantaa]], Finland]]
The BWF organizes several international competitions, including the [[Thomas Cup]], the premier men's international team event first held in [[1949 Thomas Cup|1948–1949]], and the [[Uber Cup]], the women's equivalent first held in [[1957 Uber Cup|1956–1957]]. The competitions now take place once every two years. More than 50 national teams compete in qualifying tournaments within continental confederations for a place in the finals. The final tournament involves 12 teams, following an increase from eight teams in 2004. It was further increased to 16 teams in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|title=Thomas and Uber Cups increased to 16 teams|url=https://www.sportskeeda.com/badminton/thomas-and-uber-cups-increased-to-16-teams|website=sportskeeda.com|access-date=25 June 2017|date=11 June 2012}}</ref>

The [[Sudirman Cup]], a gender-mixed international team event held once every two years, began in 1989. Teams are divided into seven levels based on the performance of each country. To win the tournament, a country must perform well across all five disciplines (men's doubles and singles, women's doubles and singles, and mixed doubles). Like [[association football]] (soccer), it features a promotion and relegation system at every level. However, the system was last used in [[2009 Sudirman Cup|2009]] and teams competing will now be grouped by world rankings.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Sachetat|first1=Raphaël|title=Sudirman Cup to Change Format|url=http://www.badzine.net/2009/05/event-sudirman-cup-to-change-format/|website=Badzine|access-date=30 March 2017|archive-date=31 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180131205243/http://www.badzine.net/2009/05/event-sudirman-cup-to-change-format/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Badminton was a demonstration event at the [[1972 Summer Olympics|1972]] and [[1988 Summer Olympics]]. It became an official [[Badminton at the Summer Olympics|Summer Olympic]] sport at the [[1992 Summer Olympics|Barcelona Olympics]] in [[Badminton at the 1992 Summer Olympics|1992]] and its gold medals now generally rate as the sport's most coveted prizes for individual players.

In the [[BWF World Championships]], first held in [[1977 IBF World Championships|1977]], currently only the highest-ranked 64 players in the world, and a maximum of four from each country can participate in any category. Therefore, it's not an "open" format. In both the BWF World and the Olympic competitions restrictions on the number of participants from any one country have caused some controversy, because they result in excluding some world elite level players from the strongest badminton nations. The Thomas, Uber, and Sudirman Cups, the Olympics, and the BWF World (and [[BWF World Junior Championships|World Junior Championships]]), are all categorized as level one tournaments.

At the start of 2007, the BWF introduced a new tournament structure for the highest level tournaments aside from those in level one: the [[BWF Super Series]]. This "level two" tournament series is a circuit for the world's elite players, staging twelve open tournaments around the world with 32 players (half the previous limit). The players collect points that determine whether they can play in Super Series Finals held at the year-end. Among the tournaments in this series is the venerable [[All England Open Badminton Championships|All-England Championships]], first held in 1900, which was once considered the unofficial world championships of the sport.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/23/sports/EU_SPT_BAD_Super_Series.php |title=Badminton Federation Announces 12-event Series |date=23 September 2006 |agency=Associated Press |work=International Herald Tribune |access-date=25 October 2008 |archive-date=25 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925045628/http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/23/sports/EU_SPT_BAD_Super_Series.php |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Level three tournaments consist of [[BWF Grand Prix Gold and Grand Prix|Grand Prix Gold and Grand Prix event]]. Top players can collect the world ranking points and enable them to play in the BWF Super Series open tournaments. These include the regional competitions in Asia ([[Badminton Asia Championships]]) and Europe ([[European Badminton Championships]]), which produce the world's best players as well as the [[Pan Am Badminton Championships|Pan America Badminton Championships]].

The level four tournaments, known as International Challenge, International Series, and Future Series, encourage participation by junior players.<ref>{{citation |contribution-url=http://www.internationalbadminton.org/archivescontent.asp?pageid={4B7714F9-45C1-4199-B1B7-5B62C57FAE1A} |contribution=New Tournament Structure |date=20 July 2006 |title=International Badminton Federation |url=http://www.internationalbadminton.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929134044/http://www.internationalbadminton.org/archivescontent.asp?pageid=%7B4B7714F9-45C1-4199-B1B7-5B62C57FAE1A%7D |archive-date=29 September 2007 |url-status=dead }}.</ref>