The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has notified COVID-19 Support Package to tournament organizers in the form of financial support and cost reduction initiatives.
BWF said this was carried out in consideration of the significant impact of Covid-19 and to ensure the continuation of tournaments in 2021.
The Support Package from BWF will benefit all Super 300, Super 500, Super 750 and Super 1000 tournaments hosts.
- Grade 2 tournaments fees to BWF will be reduced.
- Grade 2 tournaments will get financial support to implement Covid-19 protocols like hotel safety, face masks for participants and sanitising equipment etc.
- Grade 2 and 3 tournaments may face a possible reduction in the prize pool.
Grade 2 tournaments are the BWF World Tour tournaments like the Super 1000, Super 750 and so on. Grade 3 tournaments are the lower tier tournaments like the International Challengers and Future Series events.
Here are the possible reductions in prize money.
- Super 1000 – from US$1.1 million to US$850,000
- Super 750 – from US$750,000 to US$600,000
- Super 500 – from US$400,000 to US$320,000
- Super 300 – from US$200,000 to US$140,000
- Super 100 – from US$100,000 to US$75,000
- International Challenge – from US$25,000 to US$15,000
- International Series – from US$10,000 to US$5,000
- Future Series – Less than US$5,000
In addition to the above changes, the Super 300 and Super 500 tournaments will not have qualifying rounds, while Super 100 tournaments can request BWF to scrape qualifying rounds.