Hitherto there never have been any World Badminton Championships other than the international team contests for the Thomas Cup and the Uber Cup. In the past the question of staging such events has never been seriously considered because of the obvious doubt of the availability at any one tournament of all the best players in the world.
At the past Annual General Meeting of the Federation consideration was given to inaugurating such championships on a proposal made by the Singapore Badminton Association which, at the same time, offered to conduct the first of the series. No doubt influenced by the intervals of the Thomas Cup and the Uber Cup contests, it was the Singapore suggestion that these World Championships should also be held only every three years.
The delegates to the Annual General Meeting realised that many problems required to be solved before such championships could be instituted with success, and the matter was referred to the Council of the Federation for making recommendations to the meeting of 1970.
The main problem besetting a successful staging of such a tournament must of course be one of finance, no matter how desirable the proposal might be. There is also the problem of finding satisfactory venues, though this would doubtlessly be more easily overcome if the first mentioned problem could be solved.
Accordingly, the Council decided to seek the detailed views of all its member organisations as to whether they would be financially prepared to support World Championship tournaments no matter where they might be held under certain suggested financial conditions. These conditions, the adoption of which must depend to a great extent on the views received, could vary between each country being required to defray the entire costs of its representatives and the possibility of the promoting nation bearing a portion thereof.
Another point for consideration is whether or not such a tournament should be held annually, perhaps in different continents in some degree of rotation.
Badminton has long since advanced throughout the world sufficiently to warrant very serious thought to be devoted to the proposal, but it must be conceded that there are numerous problems beyond those already touched upon, before a world championship tournament can be successfully instituted. It would certainly be inadvisable to commence them until it is certain that they can be regularly continued.
At the moment it is unfortunate that only a very few nations possess players who could be regarded as possible champions of the universe. This, however, may well be regarded as a pot which will solve itself, but for a world tournament to be successful it would at least be desirable that a majority of the nations in membership with the Federation should take part.
-- By H.A.E. Scheele - Editor, IBF Handbook 1970