BWF Council at itsmeetings on 30 May in New Delhi, India and 14 November 2014 in Lima, Peru agreedto recommend changes to a number of laws to the BWF AGM 2015 and a number ofdecisions relating to RTTO’s, General Competition Regulations, and specific competitionregulations. These included: Laws Changes were recommended to BWF AGM 2015 to Law 9.1.1, Law 9.1.2, Law 16.7.1.2 and deletion of Law13.3.2. In addition amendments were approved by BWF Council to Appendix 7 - Instant Review System. Recommendations to Technical Officials (RTTO’s) BWF Council agreedchanges to Sections 3.3 (During the match), 3.4. (Line calls), 3.7 (Misconduct),and 5.3 (Approved hand signals). General Competition Regulations Changes to the following General Competition Regulations were agreed: • Grand Prix (Level 3)and Level 4 tournaments - prize money thresholds to increase each year from2016. • Procedures and consequences of players entering two tournaments in the same week made clearer. • GCR Appendix 11 –table of offences and penalties updated. • Separation of entries procedure clarified. • Regulations onclothing updated including clarification that players are allowed to wear headscarves and turbans on court and that players must wear the same colour and design of shirts and shorts (or equivalent allowed articles of clothing)throughout a match. • Clarification that retiring from a match shall not be considered a withdrawal and procedures around ‘no show’s including that a ‘no show’ penalty will be added to the withdrawal penalty not replace it. • In Appendix 2 –Specifications for International standard facilities it was made necessary to have a wooden sprung floor, or equivalent surface for level 3 tournaments(previously only mandatory for level 1 and 2). • World Ranking system –revision of Continental Championships/Continental multi-sport games individualchampionships points allocation so that Asian Championships receive BWF World Superseries level points and African Championships receive International challenge points.The other Championships remaining the same. • Adjustment to Appendix 8, date lines for tournaments, all dates adjusted to be one week earlier. • Revised and clarified Appendix 10 BWF Sanctioning Policy to show how different levels of tournamentmay use different titles and that only the highest ranking tournament offeredby a Member Association may use the title ‘Open’. Also clarified various principles of sanctioning such as level 3 grand prix tournaments are no longer allowed to be scheduled to overlap with level 2 events. • Regulations for the Thomas & Uber Cups were revised to allow for the re-introduction ofContinental Confederations qualifying tournaments and also changes as aconsequence to the composition of teams for the Finals. • BWF Council agreed regulations for Badminton competition– Rio 2016 (Section 5B) and the Statement of Badminton’s Requirements for Rio 2016 (Section 5C). In addition the principle was agreed that BWF may use group play in the Brazil Grand Prix 2015(Rio 2016 test event), if required to fully simulate the competition conditions for the results service providers OMEGA. • New Regulations for Superseries were agreed that included the introduction of a bonus incentive scheme for player’s ranked top ten in the BWF World Superseries standings in return for fulfilling their playing commitments and various media obligations. Also it was agreed that from 1 January 2015 BWF will grant wild card invitations toreigning world champions in non-Olympic years (in Olympic year the reigningOlympic Champions) to the Superseries Finals if they do not qualify as of right via the Superseries standings list and if they are in the top 20 of the World rankings on the date of invitation by BWF. A maximum of two players from that Member Association in the event would be observed and also the number of players/pairs in the event will not exceed eight. • It was agreed to include in the BWF Equipment approval scheme that for level 1 to 3 tournaments,court mat run-off areas will be recommended to be at least 1 metre from the baselines, and 0.5 metres from the sidelines. All level 1 to 3 tournament courts to fully comply by 2020. • The number of mandatory doping tests to be conducted at Grand Prix tournaments was increasedto a minimum of six. • BWF Council agreed apolicy on the redistribution of medals and the world ranking system for suspended players, such as those who fail a test for a banned substance, for the World Championships and Olympic Games (and world rankings system processfor retired players).
