Ahead of the first World Darts Federation (WDF) ranking events of 2024, the WDF are pleased to welcome Papua New Guinea and Yemen as new interim member countries.
Molean Kilepak, President of the Papua New Guinea Darts Federation, said: “Papua New Guinea being granted interim membership of the WDF is great news.
“Darts is growing across the entire Pacific region and joining the WDF is a big step forward for the sport in our country.
“We are excited for this year’s Asia-Pacific Cup and we can’t wait to participate.”
Yemeni Darts Federation President Farhan Thabet Al-Muntaser added: “We thank the WDF Executive Committee for granting Yemen interim membership of the WDF.
"Darts is a sport open to everyone of all ages and we look forward to hosting our first WDF tournament in the near future."
WDF Membership Officer Dietmar Schuhmann expressed his delight at the news saying: “Having worked with both Papua New Guinea and Yemen on the membership process over the last few months, I’m very happy that both are now part of the WDF family.
“Achieving membership of the WDF is a big leap forward for darts in both of these countries and we’re very eager to welcome the national teams of Yemen and Papua New Guinea to South Korea next year for the 2025 WDF World Cup.
“The WDF are very keen to keep adding further new member countries, particularly in Asia and Africa, as they look to foster further growth of the sport worldwide. Perhaps, one day, we will see players from Yemen and Papua New Guinea competing in our big tournaments like the World Masters and World Championships.”
Changes to the WDF’s Regional Rankings
The addition of Papua New Guinea and Yemen, as well as the formalising of three new full member countries at the 2023 WDF AGM, namely Nigeria, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates, has led to the WDF making changes to its world ranking systems criteria.
From 2024 onwards, the WDF have renamed the Asia region to the Asia-Pacific region and have created a new Africa & Western Asia region.
The Asia-Pacific region comprises the following nations: Brunei, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand.
The Africa & Western Asia region comprises the following nations: Bahrain, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Nigeria, Palestine, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
All the other regions remain the same, with full detail on the updated WDF World Ranking System Criteria available to read on our Rules page.
As we are partway through the current ranking period, the Africa & Western Asia region will not carry regional table places for the 2024 WDF Lakeside World Championships.
The region will still be running WDF ranking events in 2024 though, with the inaugural Tunisia Open set for the end of April and Egypt holding a double-header of tournaments in early October.
Ranking Table Updates
These new look Regional Tables will be applied and visible on the WDF website from Thursday, February 1st onwards.
On this date, the Youth Ranking Tables will also be updated to remove all players that were 18 years of age or older on Sunday, December 31st 2023.
Any players that win a PDC Tour Card at Q-School 2024 will be removed from the WDF ranking tables on Monday, January 15th.
