It is with regret that Badminton Europe together with appointed hosts Badminton Finland have to announce that the 2022 European Men’s & Women’s Team Championships will not go ahead as planned in Finland in February.
Finland has already hosted two European Championships safely and successfully during the Covid pandemic. The European Men’s & Women’s Team Championships is however a significantly bigger event in terms of the number of participants, volunteers and technical officials.
The Covid situation is developing for the worse since the Omicron variant became dominating which, beyond not allowing spectators, may cause other unforeseen restrictions to the Championships. It was at this stage unclear if the Championships would be allowed to go ahead by the Finnish authorities. Getting a special group permission for the teams to enter Finland was also unclear and entry into Finland would potentially require quarantine for the participants both in advance of the event, and certainly should participants contract the virus during the event.
Badminton Europe made several attempts to remedy the situation in particular by taking on all costs in connection with Covid testing measures. The various interventions from Badminton Europe were however not sufficient for the Championships to go ahead, but were attempted in respect of the difficult circumstances and uncertainties that Badminton Finland had to navigate in.
The 2022 European Men’s & Women’s Team Championships were awarded to Badminton Finland as a package agreement with the 2022 European Championships to be played in week 17 this year. With the cancellation of the European Men’s & Women Championships the hosting conditions for the European Championships would need to be re-negotiated.
Badminton Europe will shortly initiate a short bidding procedure for the 2022 European Championships, similar to how it was done in 2021 where Badminton Finland with short notice took on the responsibility of hosting the 2021 European Mixed Team Championships where the initial host withdrew.