Kuala Lumpur, May 7: A change in the scoring format are some of the proposals being studied by the International Badminton Federation (IBF) to give greater appeal to badminton.

IBF vice-president Datuk Punch Gunalan said yesterday the aim of the study was to make badminton events, like the Thomas and Uber Cups to will be held here next week, more exciting and television oriented for a bigger audience.

Punch said the current 15 points scoring system may be changed to seven, nine or 11 to be played best out of three, five or seven to make games more exciting to attract more active participants, especially the younger generation.

"The current scoring system has been stagnant for more than 50 years and something must be done to make it more attractive for both participants and sponsors," he said.

Another possibility, Punch added, would be the introduction of prize money for the Thomas and Uber Cups.

The IBF used to pay for the lodging and air fare for all teams taking part in the competition but the world economic downturn in the past couple of years permitted only partial subsidies.

However, Punch said the prize money must be a reasonable amount so that players in winning teams would get substantial share.

He added that the IBF is already looking around for big sponsors for the next Thomas and Uber Cup in 2002.