Friday, January 25, 2013

Poul Erik Hoyer Larsen to run for BWF President

http://www.nst.com.my/sports/badminton/hoyer-larsen-wants-bwf-top-post-1.207878

Poul Erik has been greatly admired as a player.I wonder

what it would be like if he became President with Thomas

Lund as secretary,then Europeans will dominate the sport

and try to impose the traditional  "genteel" and part-time player

mind-set to the sport to the detriment of the pros in say China,

then the sport will be plagued by a run of injuries to players

careers and the Olympic fiasco will be repeated for the sake

of "sportsmanship" against the professional players' will.

Probably any European or Indonesian will simply continue the

policies of the past president and focus on more "sportsmanship"

and devastating schedules to the detriment of badminton as a

pro sport where players can earn a decent living.

On the other hand there is a slight advantage in that badminton

would not degenerate into the type of scandals plaguing soccer

which is controlled by bookies and betting syndicates which has

completely destroyed football in China and is threatening world

football.

China as the leading nation should take heed of the imminent danger

of badminton sinking as low as football the other Olympic sport with

its match-fixing and cynical "professionalism",which will destroy

Badminton's image ,not only as an Olympic sport but also as a

professional sport.

More amateurism ,"sportsmanship" and "Olympic Spirit" or more

professionalism,commercialisation (and with it the threat of corruption),

we shall see after the new President takes the chair.

I dont know about others but I will definitely not turn back the clock

against something built up so hard over decades for the sake of some

kind of fancy ideal.

So where will badminton be heading, hopefully more like Tennis or Table

Tennis,and hopefully not like the badminton of old or like Squash today,

trying to join the ranks of Badminton,Tennis and Table Tennis.

To China's credit,although she dominates the sport, she has never

attempted to take over the BWF.

When comparing Tennis with Badminton many conveniently forget that

Tennis is very commercial with the emphasis on winning Grand Slams

with big bucks,players take the Davis Cup or Olympics with reservations,

and fans dont try to bad-mouth them for that.

In badminton many countries focus on the non-revenue tournamnents like

Thomas/Uber Cups,Sudirman Cup,Olympics  and the World Championships

as has been the case for decades, and the Super Series are mainly fillers.

http://thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2013/2/20/sports/12733265

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