Despite losing out on hosting the Sudirman Cup to Badminton Australia's Gold Coast bid, the Scottish delegation in the Peruvian capital Lima, including Glasgow Life and EventScotland, was pleased to consider an option to stage the World Championships instead.

The Championships was open for bidding at the same time as the Sudirman Cup but did not receive appropriate bids.

Glasgow's 6,000-seat Emirates Arena has been confirmed as the venue for badminton's most prestigious tournament.

"It was obvious how much work and thought was invested in the bid which BADMINTONscotland and Glasgow submitted," said BWF President Poul-Erik Høyer.

"We were stunned at some of their innovative thinking and the Council felt that, as we still had an option to award the World Championships, we would approach BADMINTONscotland and determine if they would be interested in hosting the World Championships in 2017.

"I am pleased to say they were extremely enthusiastic about this prospect and therefore we are able to leave Lima happy to have secured two excellent hosts for top BWF tournaments.

"It's truly a win-win situation for everyone, and most importantly, for badminton."

It will be the second time that Glasgow has hosted the World Championships, having staged it at Scotstoun Centre in 1997, when Høyer won a bronze medal in the men's singles. 

It will be the fifth occasion they have taken place in Britain, with Birmingham having hosted them in 1993 and 2003 and London in 2011. 

This year's BWF World Championships were held in the Danish capital Copenhagen
©Getty Images






BADMINTONscotland chief executive, Anne Smillie, added: "We put together a superb bid for the Sudirman Cup and our presentation was extremely well received, even though we narrowly lost out to Australia.

"There is little doubt that the quality of our bid played a significant part in the decision to award these Championships to us.

"There is a very pleasing symmetry to this announcement, when one recalls that we staged both the Sudirman Cup and the Individual Championships in 1997 and the Sudirman Cup again in 2007.

"Having the Individual Championships in 2017 will complete another ten year cycle of bringing the most prestigious badminton events to Scotland.

"The return of the World Championships to Scotland is a major coup for BADMINTONscotland and our partners, Glasgow City Council and EventScotland."

Scotland's Kirsty Gilmour won a silver medal at this year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow ©Getty Images

The World Championships is the latest major event to be secured for Scotland as a legacy of the 2014 Commonwealth Games and Smillie insists it will provide a major platform for the ongoing development of the sport in the coming years.

The news could not be more timely with just five days to go until the Scottish Open Grand Prix at the Emirates Arena.

"The BWF is well aware of the strength of our partnership with Glasgow City Council and with EventScotland and they know from our track record that we will provide a world-class setting and world class organisation for the world's top players," said Smillie.

"Securing this event will also provide a huge incentive for our fantastic volunteer team, many of whom were involved in this summer's Commonwealth Games and will be on duty again next week at the Emirates Arena for the Scottish Open Grand Prix."

This year's World Championships were staged in Copenhagen.

Next year's is scheduled to be held in Jakarta with no event on the calendar in 2016 due to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. 

Other sporting events due to take place in Glasgow in the coming years include the 2015 World Gymnastics Championships, the 2015 International Paralympic Committee Swimming World Championships and the 2018 European Swimming Championships.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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November 2014: Gold Coast beat Glasgow to host 2017 Badminton World Federation Sudirman Cup
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