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(Photo: BadmintonPhoto)
David Shaw passed away
Date: 8/7/2018 1:32 PM
Published by : Emma Lollike
On August 4, David Shaw passed away. The Englishman and former TV executive will be remembered as badminton’s first Executive Director. 

Shaw’s successor at the International Badminton Federation (IBF) - now Badminton World Federation (BWF) – Neil Cameron, described the time where Shaw oversaw IBF as a period where he gradually built a larger professional staff to support him.

He managed to get a contract signed with Asian satellite TV company STAR Sports to cover a certain number of World Grand Prix (WGP) tournaments and to support the WGP Finals. The contract made room for the WGP Series and its’ finals (today; BWF World Tour and Finals) to progress.

In the 75th Anniversary booklet for BWF, Cameron writes that hiring more staff for IBF enabled more attention to be given to many aspects of IBF’s development, including improving media support with a full-time media officer, that build a database of results from all sanctioned events, introducing a transparently determined world ranking system with weekly listings, and running seeding and draw-making centrally. All these initiatives which we take for granted in the badminton world today. 

In November 1997, David Shaw announced his retirement from IBF for the following year and Neil Cameron took over from him. The Englishman had no particular relations to badminton before starting in the position in the IBF except his interests for sports in general. 

Yet it was under Shaw's executive directorship that the sport saw a spurt in tournament prize money and an increased public profile through the broadcast of top tournaments on television. 

Honorary Vice-President of Badminton Europe, Torsten Berg was the Continental Representative of Europe in the IBF Council back when Shaw was in charge, and he remembers him as a true gentleman who brought his TV experience and relations to IBF and - doing his best for badminton - really achieved to start up the professionalism we know from the sport today.

When badminton was introduced at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, the sport got a broader reach and better financial basis. With a businessman like David Shaw leading IBF badminton reached, in his time, new heights. 

The funeral for David Shaw will be held in Portsmouth, England, at 12:15 on Friday 17 August.

©badmintoneurope.com. All rights reserved.

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