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PETALING JAYA: Today the fate of the Thomas-Uber Cup Finals will be revealed.
Will there be a new draw with fewer countries, making it a sub-standard final or will it be canceled?
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) will discuss this during its virtual emergency council meeting today, following a series of retreats before the Finals in Aarhus, Denmark, from October 3-11.
A total of six countries, including the powers of Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand, have pulled out due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The others are Taiwan and Australia.
The world body is now sweating it out with top teams from China and Japan, the defending Thomas Cup and Uber Cup champions, who are also expected to do the same.
BWF has already found two replacements with Finland and Sweden who accepted their invitations to fill the void in the men’s and women’s competitions respectively, but then the question arises about the quality of the first world tournament.
The world body had also invited Hong Kong and Singapore, but they declined.
As it stands, the supposedly two 16-team competitions are only left with 12 teams, even with the inclusion of Finland and Sweden before the September 18 deadline.
Will BWF still look to Europe to save the day? They probably would if they were adamant that the show continues.
Finland’s invitation certainly raised some eyebrows as they are not even in the top eight finishers at the Men’s European Team Championships last February.
Finland will only make their second appearance in the final after their debut at the 1994 edition in Jakarta.
As for Malaysia, they will continue to take a “wait and see” approach.
Badminton Association Malaysia (BAM) secretary Datuk Kenny Goh said it was almost certain that the BWF would hold a new draw given the impact of the mass withdrawal.
Otherwise, the Malaysian Uber Cup squad could have obtained a direct qualification to the quarterfinals without playing a single match, as their three rivals in Group B – South Korea, Indonesia and Australia had all withdrawn.
As for the Thomas Cup, Malaysia will only have England and the Netherlands as company after the withdrawal of archrivals and 13-time Indonesian champions in Group A.
“If the BWF goes ahead with the Finals, they will have to make a complete change that includes a new draw,” Kenny said.
“We are still standing firm. We will participate unless canceled by BWF or if there is an increase in Covid-19 cases.
“I don’t think a hasty decision is necessary despite the decision of several countries to withdraw,” Kenny said.
“Some of them were left out of options due to travel restrictions imposed by their government or players who refuse to play … we are not facing that problem for now.”
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