Badminton officials &

duties
• Role of the referee

• The referee is the most important official of the whole tournament.

• He or she is in charge of the competition and needs to ensure that the

tournament is conducted following the Laws of
Badminton (including court, rackets and shuttlecock measurements), the
regulations of the Badminton World Federation and/or any other
regulations that might be relevant in that specific competition.

• In addition to that, the referee has the last word if there is an argument
between the umpire (in charge of the matches) and a player or team.

• Moreover, the referee makes sure that the facilities and the conditions to
play are up to the standards required for that specific tournament. For
example, he has to check that the badminton mats are mounted correctly
so they can enhance gameplay.

• Finally, the referee is also in charge of the approval of the schedule of

matches and practice (if applicable).
• Role of the Umpire
• The umpire is the maximum authority in a
particular match and it is in charge of the
court. The duty of the umpire is to make sure
that the specific match is conducted following
the Laws of Badminton, the regulations of the
Badminton World Federation and/or any other
regulations that might be relevant in that
specific competition.
• It is the umpire responsibility to judge service faults and other
player faults. The umpire keeps a record of any misbehaviour or
incident and reports it to the referee. He/she is also responsible
for keeping the match score, which will be announced after each
point of the match.

• The umpire has control over the specific match but also needs to
report any serious acts to the referee, who is, at the end, the
maximum authority of the tournament.

• Outside of the major tournaments, the referee will also take the
role of an umpire in order to help with the process.
Umpire in Badminton
Chair Umpire in Badminton
• We discussed how a referee is in-charge of a tournament but during a match, it is
the chair umpire who acts as the main official meaning that all decision was taken
by umpire whether right or wrong is final.
• The job of a chair umpire is to make sure that the match is conducted according to
the rules prescribed by BWF.
• Some of the duties of a chair umpire are
• Doing toss of the coin to decide who will serve and who will play on which court
• Introducing players to the crowd by taking their name on the mic(if provided)
• Keeping a record of the score during the entire match and telling the same on the
mic(if provided) before each serve.
• Ensuring that the match is conducted in a peaceful manner
• Checking for net faults (if a player touches the net during a rally) or any other fault
except regarding service because it is the duty of service judge
• Calling mopper(with hand signals) if a player asks for the same ( only if necessary)
• Powers of Chair umpire
• A player should always keep in mind that chair umpire is the top
official during a match and doing anything against the rules even after
warning from umpire can cause disqualification.

• These are some of the powers of chair umpire

• He has the power to overrule line judge decision meaning that if he is
certain that the decision made by line judge is wrong than it is in his
power to change line call from OUT to IN and vice versa.

• He got the authority to give cards to the player on misconduct, there

are three types of card in badminton, yellow(warning), red(gives one
point to the opponent), black(disqualify).
• Service Judge/Umpire in Badminton
• In badminton, the role of a service Umpire is to incept whether the
server is doing the service by the rules determined by BWF.

• It is important to know that it is he who can give service fault to the

player and not the chair umpire, Service judge uses hand signals if a
fault is committed by the player to tell chair umpire that a fault has
been committed by the server.
• Role of the Service Judge
• The service judge is responsible for making a ‘service fault’ call
and to provide shuttles to the players. Due to the way
badminton is played, the serve is one of the most important
and perfected shots of the player and, especially when playing
doubles, players will bring the serve to the limit of the legality
in order to gain as much advantage as possible.

• In addition to checking the service, the service judge usually

takes care of the shuttles, providing the players with new
shuttles whenever required.

• In smaller championships, when there is no service judge, the

umpire takes the role of the service judge.
 Hand Signals used by Service Judge
• Foot Fault:- When a player moves during the service, or his foot is
touching the midcourt line

• Shuttle above legal height:- If the server hits the shuttle above a
height of 1.15m

• Racket head not pointing down:- If racket head of the server is above
or parallel to his racket handle joint(with shaft)

• Touching feather first:- Your racket face should hit the bottom of the
shuttle first.

• Double action:- the serving player make double action with racket

before hitting the shuttle.
• Duties of Service Judge
• To make sure that players are following service rules set by BWF
• Give shuttle to players for warm-up
• If chair umpire allows, changing the shuttle to a new one during a
match

• Power of Service Judge in Badminton

• The service judge decision is final when it comes to service faults and
it cannot be overruled
• Role of the Line Judge
• The line judges are responsible for indicating
whether a shuttlecock landed “in” or “out” if the
shuttle lands near the lines he/she is assigned to
control. Due to the fast speed of the game and
the skill of the players, this is a very challenging
job and, as a result, the line judges are the
officials that usually get more pressure from the
players.
Hand signals used by lineman
There are three types of hand signals made by lineman

• When the shuttle is IN:- Lineman will make pledge gesture with his
hand

• When the shuttle is OUT:- He will extend both of his arm making a
straight line from his one hand to another hand.

• When he does not know:- when the lineman is not certain if the shuttle
was IN or OUT due to reason like player covered the line etc. He covers
his eyes with both hands.
• Depending on the level of the tournament, there may be as many as 10
line judges assigned to a court for a particular match. This is the number
recommended by the BWF.

• When 10 line judges are available, they are positioned as follows:

• 2 line judges for the short service line (one on each side of the court)
• 2 line judges for the centre line (one on each end of the court)
• 4 line judges for the side lines (two on each side of the courte). Please
note that the exact location will depend on whether a singles match is
being played (and they would follow the singles side lines) or a doubles
match is being played (and they would follow the doubles side lines

• 2 line judges for the back boundary lines (one each end of the court).
Please note that, in the case of the doubles match, these line judges
check both the back boundary line and the long service line.
 POSITIONS OF LINEMEN IN THE COURT

These stars are showing where do linemen sit, but it is not necessary that every line should be
monitored by him it depends on how important a match is.
•3 on backcourt on each side
•2 on the service line
•2 on backcourt looking at their vertical line
 REFERENCES

• https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&ei=UTF-8&p=bad
minton+officials+hand+signals+chart&type=E210US885G0#id=7&vid=9a13c
dbd913f42e27e3276660bca2bf8&action=view

• https://badmintonisgreat.com/badminton-officials/