The Badminton World Federation (BWF) is governing body of professional badminton globally. It has 201 members, 11 of which are associate members. Since most events of badminton have players represent their nation, at any given point of time, a player can represent only one nation.
A player can however, change their allegiance to another country. However, in order to do so they must satisfy a specific criteria. They must satisfy two of the three criteria to represent another member association. It also automatically qualifies them to represent the member association in team events.
- The player must have a passport of the country whose territory the Member Association has control over.
- The player has not represented any other member nation in the preceding three years apart from the one they wish to represent.
- The previous side they represented was also a member nation.
A player must be nominated by the member association’s governing body that the player wishes to represent. A player has to accept this nomination to officially be a representative of that nation.
If a member nation is split politically or by the BWF for governance, then a player who is a representative of that member nation is deemed to be a representative of no member nation at that point of time.
The eligibility criteria of the BWF cannot be superseded in any other multi-sporting event except the Paralympic games.
Notable shuttlers who represented two nations are Tony Gunawan, Qi Xiefei, Beiwen Zhang.