PETALING JAYA: Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) boss Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz knows his numbers well.
In a short video in his social media page, Zafrul gave a clear picture of how many officials are involved in the international stage as umpires.
He was responding to a question posed by a netizen, Tajuddin Kamil on X.
“I don’t see any international badminton umpires from Malaysia although we are top four badminton country. Does anyone have answers?” Tajuddin posted.
And Zafrul was quick to answer in his video.
“It’s not true that there is no umpire from Malaysia.
“There are several levels you need to go through to become an umpire,” said Zafrul.
In fact, Zafrul listed out there are BAM accredited (BAM-A), BAM certificated (BAM-C), Badminton Asia accredited (BA-A), Badminton Asia certificated (BA-C) and BWF (Badminton World Federation (BWF) C and BWF A.
“If you have BAM A, then you can be an umpire in the state and national level tournaments,” he said.
“Currently, we have 670 umpires with BAM-A but to become an international umpire, you need at least BAM-C level which we have 57 currently.
“Umpires with BAM-C are qualified only for international competitions organised by BAM.
“To become an international umpire for overseas tournaments, you need to have Badminton Asia accreditation.
“We have seven umpires with Badminton Asia-A, three with Badminton Asia-C and one each with BWF A and BWF C status. So, overall, we have 12 international umpires. If we were to compare with other badminton powerhouses, do we have more or less?
“China have 15, Indonesia have 14, Malaysia have 12, followed by Japan with nine and Korea with seven.
“So, we are among the countries with the highest number of umpires. Of course, as the level gets higher, it’s more difficult to get accreditation.”
