The Badminton Europe Board of Directors allocated the 2024 European Senior Championships to the Royal Belgian Badminton Federation. The event is expected to be played in August 2024, but exact dates will have to be confirmed and will be announced in due time.
The event is allocated pending a signed contract between the the Royal Belgian Badminton Federation (RBBF) and Badminton Europe (BEC). Sven Serré, President of the RBBF, is delighted by the news:
“Of course we are really happy to host for the first time the European Seniors in Belgium, after having hosted the European Mixed Team Championships in 2015 and facilitated the BEC Board and Commission meetings in 2019 and 2021. By hosting major European events we want to promote badminton and to grow as a federation.”
Serré invites players and fans to participate in the tournament and is sure that everybody will enjoy the event in Belgium:
“The event will be organized in the northeast of Belgium in the lovely and green province of Limburg, a real tourist paradise. All players and participants will enjoy the Belgian life and hospitality and moreover will have the 'badminton time of their senior lives'.”
Belgium takes over hosting of ESC in 2024 after Croatia’s withdrawal
On 15 July Badminton Europe announced that its originally appointed host of the 2024 European Senior Championships, Dubrovnik/Croatia, had to withdraw its bid due to the worldwide pandemic causing the venue in Dubrovnik not to be finished on time for the event in 2024.
Badminton Europe therefore re-opened the bidding procedure and saw interest from several Members in hosting the event shortly after the announcement. This interest has now materialized in the event being re-allocated to Belgium.
“2024 is an important year for Belgian Badminton as the federation turns 75 – so it is nice that we are able to take one of our events there. We look forward to welcoming more than 1.000 players to the brand new venue in Heusden-Zolder, and I am sure we will see an extremely well-organised event from the Belgian organisers. It is a big task to organize the European Senior Championships, but I am absolutely sure that the Royal Belgian Badminton Federation will prove to everyone coming that they are the perfect hosts of such an event”, said Jimmy Andersen, Deputy General Secretary of Badminton Europe.