India to host Sudirman Cup in 2023; BWF awards five major tournaments between 2019 and 2025 to China

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced the host nations for 18 major events to be played across the next six years. A total of 11 member associations from four continents were awarded hosting responsibilities with India getting the nod for the Sudirman Cup in 2023 and China being awarded seven more events, in addition to the 2019 Thomas and Uber Cups they had already been awarded two years ago.

India hosted the World Badminton Championships in 2009 and the Thomas and Uber Cup in 2014. The World Junior Championships was held once in 2008. The country also hosted the  Badminton Asia Championships in 1965, 1983 2005 and 2010 before hosting the Team Event in 2016.

The final bids were presented earlier at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre in Malaysia on Thursday, when the BWF Council members analysed the bid presentations from Member Associations for the 18 major events, including the Thomas and Uber Cup, Sudirman Cup, World Badminton Championships, World Junior and World Senior Championships.

The badminton governing body said that the unprecedented decision to award 18 hosts in one bid process aligns with its vision to establish long-term targets to broaden the development initiatives and create a strategic position for the sport around new projects and partnerships.

“This is an unprecedented decision for BWF, where we are announcing 18 of our major event country hosts as far forward as 2025,” BWF President Poul-Erik Høyer

“It allows all of our hosts to work closely with BWF to ensure the staging of world-class tournaments as we continue to grow the sport globally. We were lucky to receive some outstanding bids, all with the same forward-thinking vision as us.”

“Following an exhaustive assessment period, we were able to determine the host cities and countries that best represented the interests of the sport.

“We’d like to thank all parties involved in this process and look forward to venturing to new locations that have not had the honour of hosting our major events before.”

All bids will now go into a second and final phase of evaluation where the last details of the bids will be clarified before contractual finalisation where, in some cases, the final bid city will be confirmed and then announced.

BWF Secretary General Thomas Lund added: “The process that BWF went through with all hosts has been a very productive and new experience but also left BWF with very difficult considerations on some very good and long-term bids. We feel that today’s outcome is good for the future of the sport.”

Below are the hosts announced by the BWF (subject to finalisation):

2019

World Championships: Basel, Switzerland (previously announced) Sudirman Cup: Nanning, China (previously announced) World Junior Championships: Kazan, Russia

2020

Thomas & Uber Cups: Aarhus, Denmark World Junior Championships: Auckland, New Zealand

2021

World Championships: Spain (city to be confirmed) Sudirman Cup: China (city to be confirmed) World Junior Championships: China (city to be confirmed) World Senior Championships: Spain (city to be confirmed)

2022

World Championships: Tokyo, Japan Thomas & Uber Cups: Bangkok, Thailand World Junior Championships: Spain (city to be confirmed)

2023

World Championships: Copenhagen, Denmark Sudirman Cup: New Delhi, India World Junior Championships: Honolulu, USA World Senior Championships: Seoul, Korea

2024

Thomas & Uber Cups: China (city to be confirmed)

2025

World Championships: Paris, France Sudirman Cup: China (city to be confirmed) World Senior Championships: Auckland, New Zealand