Indonesia's Praveen Jordan (L) and Melati Daeva Oktavianti defeated Thailand's Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai in the mixed doubles final at the 2020 All England tournament in Birmingham, United Kingdom on March 15, 2020. (Photo by Tim Ireland/Xinhua)

Badminton's 2020 season is set to end in 2021 after the BWF decided to reschedule its World Tour Asian leg for January next year due to COVID-19.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Asian leg of the adjusted Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour 2020 will take place in Bangkok, Thailand in January next year, which means the 2020 season will end in 2021, the BWF said on Friday.

Due to challenges in securing all logistical arrangements for players and participants, staging the Asian leg in November as originally planned was no longer a viable option, badminton's global governing body said in a statement.

Thailand had been selected as hosts following a feasibility study by the BWF and the Badminton Association of Thailand in collaboration with the Thai government, to ensure a safe COVID-19 framework to stage the three tournaments, the BWF said.

It will feature two Super 1,000 Asia Open, culminating with the BWF World Tour Finals.

The three Asian leg tournaments now sit alongside the Denmark Open 2020 in October, in forming the conclusion to the new-look World Tour 2020 calendar. Earlier this month, the BWF announced the postponement of the 2020 Thomas & Uber Cup finals to 2021 after a number of participating teams withdrew amid COVID-19 concerns.

BWF president Poul-Erik Hoyer Larsen and secretary-general Thomas Lund said in a joint letter on Friday that although pushing back the tournament would affect world rankings and next season's BWF tournament calendar, it was still the best option.

"From the start, we emphasized we would only see a return to international badminton if it was safe and logistically possible to do so. Therefore, for the past six months, we have been 100 percent dedicated to preparing for the safe return to international badminton," they said. ■