In the current format 12 teams qualified and played in 4 groups of three. The group winners proceed to the qtrs, the second and third placed teams play off to reach the quarters. The advantage of this is that all teams get 3 matches and even if you start in an unbalanced tough group you have chance to progress. The disadvantage is that there are 5 "A" teams and one of those will fail to make the qtrs, while the others get a relative easy passage. The options would be that only the winners and second place qualify and go into qtrs. A further option would be to split the teams into top 6 and bottom six. The six would play off in two groups of three to reach final, bottom placed teams would play off with loser relegated to "B" group. I would like to see the number of teams expanded even more. For instance in the womens event England failed to qualify behind 3 very strong teams in the euro zone, with asian imports such as Mia, Pi etc many euro teams are strong and it is good for badminton to include as many nations as possible. The "Thomas" cup as a brand is not really established in many countries, especially europe, perhaps the world mens team championships would be easier to market??
These days, the Thomas Cup is usually held in Asia. It's therefore bound to cause less publicity in Europe than, say, the World Championships, which are usually held in Europe. Regarding the format, I think it's perfect. In the group play, there are a number of matches that aren't that exciting, but that's the way it has to be. Are the "right" teams reaching the quarterfinals? Yes. Is it exciting? Yes. Why else do we break BF's "most users online" record each time? And this year we broke it already in the quarters...
Don't they just have to win the play-off match to get to the QF ? As it is now 23 matches are played (if I can add up). I would prefer to see 8 teams in the final and then have an all-play-all. That would require 28 matches. Each match would have all 5 games played.
Neil, I meant to say one would fail to reach semis. For instance INA have played two top 5 teams already to reach semis where as for DEN the event only begins with the semi. I would like to see more matches between the top teams but at the same time more minor countries. An 8 all v all would be too many matches for the team I feel, but a format with group matches between the top teams would be preferable.
I agree with Mag and think the current format is excellent, although confusing. Also, I agree with the participation of nations from other continents. After all, badminton is an Olympic sport now, and we need to excite interest in more continents than Asia and Europe. I think as a sport, badminton is developing nicely albeit slowly.
If the 8 was CHN, INA, DEN, KOR, MAL, THAI, GER, JPN A team such as DEN would have 4 tough matches in which they would play their A team and only 3 relatively easy matches , and even against those it would be tough if players were rested. At the moment apart from INA the other teams will have only played two tough matches maximum, or in CHINA case three. Plus I think you would still need to have a final?? well I'm sure you were next on the selectors list Neil, lets face it we need some new singles players!
an 8 v 8 group match will not be that interesting, as most of the matches will be strong team like China destroying weaker teams. am i correct to say that you want to maximize the head-to-head clash between "A" teams?
dlp, there are 5 "A" teams, and 4 spots in the semi's, no matter how you arrange it, i assure you that one team will definitely not reach the semi...
WOW!! Yesterday, at 1800BST (during the MAL/INA match) there was 130 people online. Thats amazing, I think we will get more than 300 at somepoint during the Olympics, a bold statement but, i think, achievable. How will the server stand up to this?!
300! that will be an achievement. but 130 is already very impressive! we also broke the number of posts/day record, 755 posts in one day! the server will be fine. we have our own dedicated machine now so there are tons of room for BC/BF to grow.
Tell me about the posts! I didnt visit over last weekend, and had 6pages of new posts to get through!! It took up most of my day, and of course, once I had finished that, there were LOADS of new ones!! I should get out more I dont suppose you have any graph of the number of new members/week since BF started, or a graph of posts per days since the beginning?? Haha, Not only I am a badminton fanatic, but BF fanatic too!! I should get out more
IMHO: Advantages - less glamour teams such as Germany, Netherlands, Taiwan; with all due respect, have the chance to experience the knockout stages where ties heat up and the stakes raised. - will do a lot of good to the publicity of badminton in countries where badminton is not very popular; the thought of the people knowing that their country are fighting in the 'playoff for a quarterfinals' slot is more appealing than 'qualifying for knockout', I think - as with the point above, the chance to meet a big gun badminton country more than once is a good thing; greater participation, chance to learn. You don't quite see players from South Africa coming to Asia and playing in China Open, against the likes of Lin Dan, Gong Ruina, Kim/Ha. - chances of upsets are good, as in UC, Denmark was stretched the mile before winning 3 : 2 against the Netherlands; this is akin to Monaco beating Real Madrid in this year's Champion's League SF; the 'romantic' factor Disadvantage - as mentioned above, one of the big teams may crash early, thus subduing the tournament a bit. But then again, no team have divine rights to win a match - commercially, a tie between USA vs Indonesia won't be as interesting as a China vs Denmark game, no? Again, I say, commercially
Did Pi Hong Yan play in the Uber cup? Perhaps England should be looking to import an Asian player as well to stregthen the depth in their squad. They have an australian and a scot playing for them. With the present format, the TC/UC can be expanded quite easily - when the quality is there. I'm sure it will be so 6-8 years from now. IBF policy seems to concentrate on expanding the exposure of badminton with the continental format at present.
It is because there are 5 big teams, and however we may try, we will not squeeze all 5 into the semis (in a knock-out format). And I wouldn't say the last 8 to be early. In the previous format, there has to be 3 big teams in one group, and one of them will not get through. Now, at least the one left out can say they went out in the quarterfinals, and not in the preliminaries. But, the disadvantage is that the a big team may only play one other great team. Malaysia only played Indonesia. We will never know how Malaysia fare against the others. Malaysia was not given any chance to redeem itself. Similarly, if Denmark and Korea loses tonight, both will have just played one other big gun. Previously, one big gun will have at least 2 big ties (assuming all these big guns win against the small fries). So, we now have a "dilution". A lesser percentage of action are top quality. The advantage is that some of the competition among the "B" quality nations can be exciting as well, and it invites interest from more sections of the global population, thus expanding interest to more than just the big 5. This is more apparent in the Uber Cup even though China is the sole overwhelming giant. Some of the more exciting moments have come from the women from more countries.
Next TC, Denmark won't one of the top 5 teams anyway. Peter Gade, Kenneth Jonassen, Anders Boesen, Peter Rasmussen, Jens Eriksen, Martin Lundgaard-Hansen will all have all left the international scene by then... They will still be strong in doubles (if they manage to find a decent partner for Carsten Mogensen) but they won't have any top 10 singles.
Total Asian dominance. This is not good. Bad for the publicity of the game. The more credible competitor in numbers, the better. Not too much of an effect on the level of playing but could get less interesting compared to when there are much more great players. Still, less from Denmark may mean more great players from other 'minority' badminton countries.
