New Delhi, Mar 25 (UNI) The Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Wednesday welcomed the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, saying that it was also looking at the possibility of freezing the World rankings, till the starting of international tournaments.
"Today, we stand in solidarity with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) in welcoming the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games," the BWF said in a statement.
"BWF fully supports the decision made yesterday by IOC President Thomas Bach, Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe, and the Tokyo Organising Committee (TOCOG), to 'reschedule the Games to a date beyond 2020, but no later than summer 2021'," it added.
BWF also called for patience, as it plans to work with the IOC, IPC and the TOCOG, "to gain a better understanding of what the next 12 months will look like.
BWF said it would review any impacts on the Olympic and Paralympic qualification system, to ensure a fair solution is found to qualify players for the postponed Games.

"BWF, in the short-term, is also looking into the possibility of freezing World Rankings until international tournaments start again.
"However, we are still working on the technical solution to ensure the freezing and eventual un-freezing of World Rankings works fairly for all players and we will announce this shortly," it added.
There have been growing calls for freezing the World rankings with Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal, B Sai Praneeth, Parupalli Kashyap and H S Prannoy expressing their concern.
Shuttlers in the singles competition have to be on top-16 of World rankings, to qualify for the Olympics. The cut-off for the doubles is top-8.
Earlier, BWF had suspended tournaments in the coming months, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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