Who runs badminton: the BWF and its World Tour.

One caution applies to the whole page: every BWF website returned an access error when this site's research tried to read it. BWF facts here come from search summaries of BWF pages, from Wikipedia, from the badminton historian Bernard Adams and the Badminton Museum, and from national bodies, and each is labelled with where it comes from.

The world body: from the IBF to the BWF

BWF 90th-anniversary material, as summarised in search results, says the International Badminton Federation (IBF) was founded on 5 July 1934 at a meeting in London called by the Badminton Association, with nine founding members: Canada, Denmark, England, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales. Adams also dates the IBF's formation to July 1934. Wikipedia gives Cheltenham rather than London as the place; Cheltenham is where, according to Wikipedia, the federation's head office was until it moved to Kuala Lumpur in 2005.

The rival federation, 1978 to 1981

A rival World Badminton Federation (WBF) was formed on 24 February 1978, led by China, which was not then an IBF member; BWF Olympic material and Wikipedia, as summarised, say 13 Asian and six African associations joined, and that it held its own world championships in Bangkok in November 1978. An Indonesian news piece (VOI) instead calls the rival body the Badminton World Federation and says 22 countries founded it. The IBF and the WBF signed a Deed of Unification in Tokyo on 26 May 1981, according to the same BWF material and Wikipedia as summarised.

The BWF name and the move to Kuala Lumpur

Wikipedia says the IBF adopted the name Badminton World Federation at an extraordinary general meeting in Madrid on 24 September 2006, after moving its headquarters from Cheltenham to Kuala Lumpur in 2005. The month of the move differs: GKToday gives 1 October 2005, and a BWF page, as summarised in search results, gives June 2005.

Size and leadership

• Members: Wikipedia gives 202 national associations (citing a source accessed on 1 September 2024); the BWF's own 2015 anniversary post, as summarised in search results, said 182. No 2026 figure was confirmed.
• Continents: Wikipedia names five continental confederations working with the BWF: Badminton Asia, Badminton Europe, Badminton Pan America, Badminton Africa and Badminton Oceania.
• President: Wikipedia, citing an April 2025 BWF release, names Khunying Patama Leeswadtrakul of Thailand, in office from 2025. This was not confirmed on a BWF page.
• Para badminton has been governed by the BWF since 2011, according to a search summary of an IPC feature.

National bodies

England: Badminton England

The Badminton Museum records that the Badminton Association was founded at a meeting held at 2 pm on 13 September 1893 at Dunbar, Waverley Grove, Southsea, near Portsmouth, called by Major S. S. C. Dolby of the Southsea Badminton Club, who became its first president. The number of founding clubs is given two ways: the museum says nine clubs were present and 14 joined in the first year, while Adams says representatives of 14 clubs founded it. In 1934 the Association handed international responsibility to the IBF and became the Badminton Association of England, and in 2005 it became Badminton England, according to the museum. It is based in Milton Keynes (Wikipedia) and is the UK's national governing body for Paralympic badminton (UK Sport).

United States: USA Badminton

USA Badminton's history page says it was founded in 1936 in Brookline, Massachusetts, as the American Badminton Association, joined the IBF in 1938, became the USBA in 1978 and USA Badminton in 1996. The USA Badminton Museum, as summarised in search results, gives 1976 and 1997 for the two renamings instead.

The professional circuit: the BWF World Tour

Badminton's professional circuit is run by the world body itself. Search summaries of BWF pages and Wikipedia describe the HSBC BWF World Tour for the 2023 to 2026 cycle as follows:

• A World Tour Finals plus regular events graded Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500 and Super 300.
• Super 100 events, run separately as the BWF Tour Super 100.
• The top eight in each of the five events on the Race to Finals ranking qualify for the Finals in December.

The size of the tour is reported inconsistently: BWF pages are summarised as describing 30 regular World Tour events in one place and 31 in another, and Wikipedia's 2026 schedule lists 10 Super 300 events where BWF sources say 11.

In February 2026 the BWF announced, according to a search summary of its news page, a new structure for 2027 to 2030 with six unified levels and 36 tournaments: five Super 1000, five Super 750, nine Super 500, eight Super 300 and eight Super 100. On 26 October 2026 the 2026 World Tour season was still running, with the Finals due in December.

How the BWF ranks players is on rankings explained; badminton's Olympic history is on the Olympic and Paralympic programme, and its origins on badminton origins.