China sets to relaunch badminton club league next month
Posted by valsus on December 1, 2009
The Chinese badminton club league (CBCL) is about to restart after a seven-year break on Dec. 16 in its southern city of Guangzhou.
Initiated in 1999, the CBCL was suspended in 2002 due to fund shortage as only three clubs involved, failing to slice a share in the Chinese sports market.
Up till now, 14 club teams are registered to participate in the CBCL this year, and they will be divided into four groups with th etop eight directly qualifying for the China badminton super league in 2010.
Liu Fengyan, director of Table Tennis and Badminton Administration Center of China’s State General Administration of Sport, said at a press conference Monday the super league in 2010 is scheduled to last nearly three months. The shuttlers would be categorized into A, B, C levels and A level shuttlers would be rewarded with an annual salary cap of 300,000 RMB (some 42,000 US dollars).
To enhance the influence of the super league, each club can recruit foreigners from the top eight on the BWF world rankings with the exception of the Chinese players. Malaysia’s badminton talent Lee Chongwei has been confirmed to compete for Guangzhou club in the league.
However, Li Yongbo, head coach of the Chinese national badminton team, showed “little interest” towards the club league.
“I hope the club league will go well, but I am not interested in it,” Li was quoted by local Oriental Sports Daily as saying.
“If I were the president of Badminton World Federation (BWF), I won’t organize the match in this way,” Li told the sports daily.
Li thought the intense schedule would cause huge challenge to shuttlers, especially the top players.
In contrast, Jiangsu provincial badminton team coach Sun Zhi’an applauded the resume of the club league, saying that it would promote the development of the sport.
