Several problems In my opinion there are several problems in this issue. And the issue is quite similar to the withdrawals of most of the chinese team entered into Denmark Open and i.e. the withdrawal of Peter Gade from the recent China Open. First it must be clear to everyone that it is simply not attractive enough to the players, or the national associations, to participate in the World Super Series Finals. The blame for this goes solely to the BWF. The BWF has so far failed to make it attractive or mandtory to participate in the SS Finals. But first an example: China withdrew its top players from Denmark Open stating fatigue as the reason. And Peter Gade gave the same explanation for withdrawing from China Open. Lee Chong Wei could have done the same regarding China Open, but he went to Shanghai and lost in the first round to Jan O Jorgensen. This win was great for Jan, and it created something to talk about at least in Denmark but possibly also in Europe where it brought hope to mens singles. The same might have happened to i.e. a young Indonesian player had Peter Gade chosen to go to (or had been forced to go to) China Open. Peter, like Chong Wei would have been a little tired and not overly motivated because this was not a high priority tournament for him. A loss wouldn't have done him too much harm, but it would have been a great story. Likewise reflections goes for the chinese participation in Denmark Open and so on for many tournaments during the year. My point in this is that the BWF should make the players and the countries especially China and Korea, but also other countries absolutely clear that we are all in this together - in promoting badminton in a better and mucg more professional way than we've done so far. 1) This starts by the BWF itself. Hopefully good people have started taking control of things now. Because for the second year in a row it has been a secret when and where the finals were going to be held. With that in mind it is unfair to blame countries or players for having planned otherwise, taken into account the facts and tournaments that have been scheduled in due time. - So this MUST change starting next week! 2) It should be more attractive to be part of the WSSMF !!! OR the punishment for not going should be severe. WSSMF is supposed to be a KEY EVENT in promoting badminton. The players and countries should commit to particioate in this promotion if they want to be part of the Super Series at all. AND it should be worth while! 500.000 devaluated US$ is nothing much these days. They're almost equal in value to the 250.000 US$ price money offered in the Korea Open anno 1997, where by the way Thomas Stuer won the men's singles. This is simply not good enough!!! The BWF must secure a bigger price pool for the season finale - if that is not possible it should be called off 6 months before instead of showing the embarrassing field of players as is the case now. The PLAYERS must participate in WSSMF in order to be able to participate in any Super Series or BWF event the following year. If such a rule is not possible to implement, then the PLAYERS should be fined an amount of 50 % of the price monet offered for the winner in each category. AND the price money won is to be paid dirctly to the players personal bank-account instead of to the national association. PLAYERS qualified but unable to play due to injury has to be present during the event and be available for promotion and marketing purposes should the organisers wish so, and it should be mandatory to go to the event and see the event medical staff for confirmation of the stated injury. These suggestions should be modified and implemented for each Super Serie event as well, in order to secure that they in fact are Super, and the BWF should lead the way.
i think that super series final must be sponsored by neutral company... i mean not YONEX, LI NING , VICTOR, etc... let the company like Haier, Djarum, PICC , Sanyo,,, etc being the sponsor...
Hmm, on this.. ..that is definitely one way to get everyone's (esp. the national bodies') attention and to think twice for skipping out. But then, does that apply only to those who register but withdraw? Or it applies to those who don't register at all? 2 different scenarios. Remember also, since this SSMF is an invitation event, i could hardly see much justification in penalizing a player/pair for not coming/accepting the invitation. Now, if the players/pairs accepted the invitation and then withdrew, then i could see the reasoning. Anyway, don't want to write much on this issue as it was already somewhat discussed in these other threads: http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76900 http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75692
The rules will have to be changed so that at the end of the season it is mandatory for the top 8 in each discipline to attend. It is therefore not an invitation and all withdrawals will result in significant fines.
^^If they're going to be fined..^^ ..how much would you suggest they be fined??.. - Also, there could be independent players/pairs who'll have to incur the tournament expenses. If they can't attend & the fine is quite high & they get penalize, do you think it's fair??.. - Where would BWF draw the line on how to excuse/exclude those who can't make it (for any reason)??.. - Have you read those threads? Better to chime in there..
It's not a matter of fair or not. You cannot have two sets of rules, one for an independent player, one representing an association. It must be a level playing field. If BWF went ahead and made the rule change, it would apply to EVERYONE. In other words, anyone playing in a BWF tournament, independent or not, knows ahead of time what the attendance rules are. No more excuses. Fine them $10,000 per missed event... I don't know. So that means about $80,000 for CHN pulling out of the SS Finals (I'm not sure how many qualified). How's that?
Hmm. ... your frase "Let" companies sponsor the event ???!!! I think the big challenge is to actually GET anyone to sponsor the event. In order to do that you have to have an interesting product, which means you have to have the best players participating.
The BWF pays all expenses regarding travel and accommodation for the participating players in WSSMF. And to me there's no difference between independant players and players representing a national practice center of an association. They're all just PLAYERS!
Hi Everyone..... The idea to give SSF some ranking points is good, no doubts that absence of Lin Dan disappoints almost everyone. I'm sure Lin Dan will not participate even in the next year's event if there is not ranking points because he is already earning alot, more than couple of million dollars so he doesn't care about those 40,000 U$D. The SSF should have more ranking points than a normal SS event. BWF should highlight this event the most, because it holds the biggest prize money, and at present people care only about the prize money. People watch the sports that have bigger prize moneys. And there should be increase in prize money of every SS and SSF every year, atleast by 5% every year.
I disagree with you. Some countries/players care about price money but others like China, Korea and to some extent Indonesia care about medals, because medals secures the national funding. So banning from medal events should be part of the "motivation" for these countries to send their best players. But the tournament planning from BWF must be much better from now on.
- I'm sorry, but the majority of today's international players are still dependent and attached to their respective national bodies. Whatever prize money they win, they have to share with the national body as the national body is the one sponsoring them (cost for travel, training, accommodation etc.). Also, badminton is not like tennis where the latter is more of a real "professional" sport (professional meaning players take care of everything by themselves). - How can the event medical staff determine & confirm if the injury is legit or not? - BWF should lead the way? Sure. But realistically, do you think they are? - Yes, BWF pays all expenses only for this SSMF. How about other tourneys? SS? GP? GP Gold? - Do you know if Taufik, the 3 INA Doubles pairs, Charmaine Reid, Nicole Grether are still representing a national practice center of an association?
Yes but there's a big difference between 1) ME earning MY money in MY bank-account, and THEN negotiating how much of MY money I have to pay/share-with you and 2) YOU having MY money, and then YOU decide how much you want to share with ME! If you have no money to go to SS-tournaments then you cannot participate in the circuit. That means you cannot enter a tournament unless you have secured the funding to go there. The next step is of course BWF to secures enough price money to cover travel and accommodation. Otherwise it's not a professional sport but something we like to call professional, even though we still have the approach like amateurs. This leads me to comment that the finals must be staged in a major city, in a hall with a spectator capacity that can be expected to be sold out. The pictures broadcast this moment is not giving the impression of spectators crowding the hall.
Yes and do you know how many and the percentage of the current international players who are actually in the first group and second group?? Thus it begs the age old question, is badminton, as a "pro" sport, in the 1st group or the 2nd group??..
