other. i'd like to watch badminton as a true individual sport, and try to take away the nationality all together. if we treat each player as an individual, we can better appreciate who they are instead of what flag is on their shirt. if people can watch and cheer Sampras vs. Agassi and treat it as one of the best rivalry in sports, how come we watch badminton players with their country flag over their face?
i would love to see that, too. however, don't get your hopes up. in short, the national federations own the players even if they get kicked off the team, like momota. seriously. becoming independent ain't that easy. there's a long explanation to the ****ed up system.
first of all and the primary reason is that the prize money isn't there to support players as independents. secondly, badminton is such a different game to tennis and training as an individual probably wouldn't work (arguable). In fact I agree with removing the nationality status and see them as individuals. Then more sponsors are willing to tap into the market. The badminton market is not hot enough. Big corporations like Yonex and Victor own sponsorship deals with whole national associations. Tennis allows the players to choose what they wear and what they do. It sorta makes badminton uncool. Table tennis is worse off.
actually, the primary reason is bwf indirectly gives your federation your lifetime playing rights, for as long as you're a citizen of your home country... even if you are no longer on the team (momota, kkk, taufik, etc.). bwf rules state that you need your nat'l federations permission to enter any bwf sanctioned tournament, whether you're playing singles, doubles and/or pairing up with someone else from another country. you see cross country pairing all the time in gp & int'l challenge tournaments, and in gpg on rare occasion. do you think cba or kba would let lyd & fhf team up and beat their old team in a major tourney? no. ****ing. way! they would be a major threat to win. whereas, for example, players like lee hyun-il (kor) has kba's permission to play as an independent because a) he's not a threat on the ss circuit, and b) korea has no ms players of significance. cai yun & mathias boe wanted to play 2016 malaysia ss together since neither had won it before (mogensen recovering from brain surgery). cba said 'no'! why take a chance of possibly losing olympic cycle points to this mixed-country pairing? ya, bwf rules are ****ed up. don't ask me to explain why because i don't make the rules. however, i had to enforce them recently.
Today, almost all players are "owned" by the respective countries' BA. Imagine if BWF sanctions independent players and allow mix country pairings without the blessing of BA... All the BAs boycott BWF sanctioned tournaments. Who will play in BWF tournaments then? Tennis is basically governed by ATP and WTA, which is the players' association. Tournaments are sanctioned by these associations owned by the players themselves, not the respective countries' tennis association (TA). So the players have a lot more freedom to play where they want and partner who they want. Until BWF (or IBF, or any newly formed federation, sanctioned by IOC and recognized by all countries' sports body) is being governed by ABP (Association of Badminton Professional)... If there ever will be one, badminton will continue to be a sport with nationalistic bias.
Or... until the big banks / financial sectors / Wall Street members / various giant corporations are willing to pour in the huge amount of money in badminton as in tennis or golf and few other elitist branches of sport, NO, badminton, table tennis, volleyball and a long list, in fact an overwhelming majority of sports will not survive on themselves in the absence of the great financial support by national states. It will be more to a sweet dream to see badminton or many other sports be flooded with huge funding from the private sectors as seen in the showcase sports such as tennis or golf or few other exclusive branches to allow them having the abundance of cash.
your point is correct, and saddens me greatly. there are plenty of people who grew up loving and playing badminton all thru jr high, high school, college and still play in their adult life. they are also big fans of the pro circuit... and they make high 7 to low 8 figure incomes ($7,000,000 - $15,000,000/yr)... yet, they don't give a $0.02 cents back to badminton or give their time to help advance the sport. nor would they even think of asking the company they work for to contribute a small amount. WTF? then they are left wonder why there are no badminton scholarships or college teams. i always tell them why... 'cuz nobody, including you, gives $'
