Thomas Cup

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The Thomas Cup is the major men's international team competition in world badminton, also known as "The International Badminton Championship Challenge Cup". It is named after Sir George Alan Thomas, a former IBF President who donated the Cup in 1939. The first Thomas Cup competition took place at Preston, England in 1948-1949.

The Thomas Cup is a knock-out competition, the first 12 editions were played once every three years with 9 matches in a tie and played in two days. In 1984 the format changed to five matches (3 singles and 2 doubles) played in a day, united with the Uber Cup (the female tournament) playing in a same venue. From 1992 the IBF decided to change the match order (to: singles; doubles; singles; doubles; singles) due to the superiority of men singles.

From 2000 the knockout phase of the matches was terminated once the winner of the tie was decided, after the IBF received criticism about the time wasting of playing the remaining matches. However the group phase will keep the traditional progression of full five matches.

1 Trophy
2 Format
- 2.1 Qualification
- 2.2 Final tournament
3 Past Winners
4 Successful national teams
5 Notes

[edit] Trophy

Thomas Cup

Manufactured in London, the trophy is silverplated, 28 inches high and 16 inches wide, handles included. The trophy is in three parts: a plinth, a bowl and a lid. On top of the lid is a figure of a player. On the back of the bowl and on the plinth the winning names are printed.

[edit] Format

Thomas Cup has two stages to be played: qualification and finals. Both are played in a venue decided by IBF.

[edit] Qualification

The qualification is the pre-tournament before the final. The format is set based on the region, qualification, and teams participating. After the tournament grew from 8 to 12 teams in the finals, Asia were awarded 4 places, 3 places for Europe and one each to Oceania, Americas and Africa. The remaining two places were given automatically to the defending champion and host country.

[edit] Final tournament

The finals of the tournament combine the format of round robin and a knockout stage. 12 teams are divided into 4 groups with 2 round robin tournament matches played for every team. The group winner goes into the quarter finals. The group runners-up and second runners-up will seal their fate in the play-offs, playing with another group runners-up teams and second runners-up teams before reaching the quarter finals. After the quarter finals follows the semi finals and final.

[edit] Past Winners

Year	Host	Final			Joint third place ^[1]
Year	Host	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Joint third place ^[1]
1949 details	Preston, England	Malaya ^[2]	8–1	Denmark
1952 details	Singapore	Malaya	7–2	United States
1955 details	Singapore	Malaya	8–1	Denmark
1958 details	Singapore	Indonesia	6–3	Malaya
1961 details	Jakarta, Indonesia	Indonesia	6–3	Thailand
1964 details	Tokyo, Japan	Indonesia	5–4	Denmark
1967 details	Jakarta, Indonesia	Malaysia	6–3	Indonesia
1970 details	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Indonesia	7–2	Malaysia
1973 details	Jakarta, Indonesia	Indonesia	8–1	Denmark
1976 details	Bangkok, Thailand	Indonesia	9–0	Malaysia
1979 details	Jakarta, Indonesia	Indonesia	9–0	Denmark
1982 details	London, England	China	5–4	Indonesia
1984 details	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Indonesia	3–2	China
1986 details	Jakarta, Indonesia	China	3–2	Indonesia
1988 details	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	China	4–1	Malaysia
1990 details	Tokyo, Japan	China	3–2	Malaysia
1992 details	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Malaysia	3–2	Indonesia
1994 details	Jakarta, Indonesia	Indonesia	3–0	Malaysia
1996 details	Hong Kong	Indonesia	5–0	Denmark
1998 details	Hong Kong, China SAR	Indonesia	3–2	Malaysia
2000 details	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Indonesia	3–0	China
2002 details	Guangzhou, China	Indonesia	3–2	Malaysia
2004 details	Jakarta, Indonesia	China	3–1	Denmark	Korea	Indonesia
2006 details	Sendai and Tokyo, Japan	China	3–0	Denmark	Indonesia	Malaysia
2008 details	Jakarta, Indonesia

[edit] Successful national teams

So far, only three countries had won the event with Indonesia is the most successful team with 13 title followed by People's Republic of China and Malaysia. Surprisingly, Thomas Cup was only stayed in Continental of Asia even Denmark had reached the final eight times, but unable to win it.

Team	Titles	Winning Years (*as hosts)	Runners-up (*as hosts)
Indonesia	13	1958, 1961, 1964, 1970, 1973, 1976, 1979, 1984, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002	4 (1967, 1982, 1986, 1992)
China	6	1982, 1986, 1988, 1990, 2004, 2006	2 (1984, 2000)
Malaysia (including Malaya)	5	1949, 1952, 1955, 1967, 1992*	8 (1958, 1970, 1976, 1988, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002)
Denmark	-	-	8 (1949, 1955, 1964, 1973, 1979, 1996, 2004, 2006)
Thailand	-	-	1 (1961)
United States	-	-	1 (1952)

[edit] Notes

^ There is no match for the third place, the losing semi-finalists will automatically be declared as the third placed winner.
^ Malaya was the former name of Malaysia, no official flag before 1950.