The Badminton Europe Council met for their first meeting of 2010 in the southern Italian city of Palermo. Some important announcements were made including the allocation of Badminton Europe events in 2011 and 2012.

The Badminton Europe Council held a meeting on 23/24 January in Palermo, Sicily. The next meeting will be following the 2010 Annual Delegates’ Meeting taking place in Machester, England on Saturday 17 April. Therefore a large proportion of this meeting was spent on ensuring everything was prepared and organised for the ADM.

Council has spent a reasonable amount of time writing Disciplinarily Regulations and updating the Rules of the Confederation. Updated versions of these documents will be proposed to the Member Associations at the ADM for approval and acceptance.

Within Marketing a plan to invest in a streaming portal was accepted meaning that it will be possible to view badminton from more Circuit tournaments on the internet in the future.

A report on preparations for the European Badminton Qualification event for the 2010 Youth Olympic Games was presented. The event will take place in Svendborg, Denmark from 19-21 March 2010. (Member Associations are reminded that the closing date for entries is 16 February 2010 – for more information go to yog.badmintoneurope.com)

Under development an equipment distribution plan was approved by Council meaning a specific number of Member Associations will receive free equipment during 2010.

It was reported than planning and preparations were going well for the various Regional Projects, Olympic training camps and the Summer School all taking place this year.

A new updated version of the Coach Education material was presented which will be used at Badminton Europe coach education courses in the future.

A proposal to provide better support to badminton for the disabled in Europe was approved.

The following bids where accepted for future events:

2010 European Club Badminton Championships: Zwolle, Netherlands
2011 European Mixed Team Badminton Championships: Groningen, Netherlands
2011 European Junior Badminton Championships: Helsinki, Finland
2012 European Badminton Championships: Karlskrona, Sweden

The above allocations are subject to contracts being signed

The following upgrades for technical officials were approved:

Badminton Europe Accredited Referee: Elaine Senior (England)
Badminton Europe Accredited Umpires: Livie Linková (Czech Republic), Martin Card (England), Agata Agacinska (Poland), Jure Babnik (Slovenia), Žiga Frass (Slovenia), Daniel Andersson (Sweden) and Andreas Wakäng (Sweden).

Badminton Europe would like to thank the Italian Badminton Federation for their excellent organisation and warm hospitality whilst hosting the Council meeting.