KUALA LUMPUR: The proposal to change the badminton scoring system from 21x3 to the 11x5 format has failed to materialise.
The proposal put forward by the BAs of Indonesia and Maldives, and seconded by Badminton Asia, Badminton Korea Association and Taiwan Badminton Association, received 66.31 per cent for and 33.69 per cent against, falling just short of the two-thirds majority required at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) annual general meeting held virtually on Saturday.
A total of 282 votes were cast.
"Our membership has spoken, and despite the very small margin in which the two-thirds majority was not reached, the BWF respect the outcome to retain the three games to 21 points scoring system," said BWF president Poul-Erik Hoyer in a statement.
The proposed change was only supposed to take effect after the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics this year.
This was the third time that an attempt to change the scoring system to an 11x5 format has been rejected.
The proposed system was experimented in 2014, and it was also voted upon during the AGM in Bangkok in 2018.
To date, badminton has only changed its scoring system twice. The 7x5 system was adopted from the 15x3 system in 2002 but was discontinued after the Commonwealth Games that year.
The current 21x3 system has been used since 2006.
On another note, BA of Malaysia (BAM) secretary general Datuk Kenny Goh was elected into the BWF council.
Kenny, who was one of 30 nominees contesting for 20 council member spots, garnered a total of 218 votes and will serve through to 2025.
"I would like to thank BAM president Tan Sri Norza (Zakaria) for nominating me and all the other member associations that put their faith in me," said Kenny. Hoyer (Denmark), deputy president Khunying Patama Leeswadtrakul (Thailand) and vice president for para-badminton Paul Kurzo (Switzerland) had earlier retained their posts unopposed.