LONDON: Eight female badminton doubles players were disqualified on Wednesday from the London Olympics after trying to lose matches to receive a more favourable place in the tournament.
The Badminton World Federation announced its ruling after investigating two teams from South Korea and one each from China and Indonesia. It punished them for “not using one’s best efforts to win a match” and “conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport” in matches on Tuesday night.
An IOC spokesman approved the Federation’s ruling.
Indonesia and South Korea protested, with the former later dropping its appeal; Korea’s was turned down.
The BWF said there would be quarterfinals in the women’s doubles, meaning at least one eliminated team would be placed into the last eight after the China team chose not to challenge the decision.
Indonesia’s coach Erick Thohir accused Chinese players of losing on purpose in the past.
“China has been doing this so many times and they never get sanctioned by the BWF,” Thohir said. “On the first game yesterday when China did it, the BWF didn’t do anything. If the BWF do something on the first game and they say you are disqualified, it is a warning for everyone.”
The eight disqualified players are world doubles champions Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang of China and their South Korean opponents Jung Kyun-eun and Kim Ha-na, along with South Korea’s Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung and Indonesia’s Meiliana Jauhari and Greysia Polii.
The players went before a disciplinary hearing on Wednesday, a day after spectators at the arena booed their performance after it became clear they were deliberately trying to lose.
London 2012 Chairman Sebastian Coe called what happened “depressing,” adding “who wants to sit through something like that?”
Teams blamed the introduction of a round-robin stage rather than a straight knockout tournament as the main cause of the problem. The round-robin format can allow results to be manipulated to earn an easier matchup in the knockout round.
The Chinese players tried to rig the draw after its second-seeded pair unexpectedly lost to a Danish team in the morning. That placed the No. 2 pair on course for a semifinal meeting with Wang and Yu, instead of the final.
Wang and Yu then deliberately set out to lose so they would go into the bottom half of the draw. They hardly exerted themselves, and neither did the South Koreans, drawing jeers of derision from the crowd and warnings from the umpire and tournament referee. Wang and Yu eventually got what they wanted by losing.
An hour later, the South Korean team of Ha and Kim took to the court and decided to also try to lose to the Indonesians to avoid meeting Wang and Yu in the quarterfinals. Early on, all four players were warned by the umpire for not trying hard, and black cards were produced to disqualify both pairs, but the cards were rescinded on a promise of better play, which was not forthcoming.
One of the world’s top male players, 2004 Olympic singles champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia, called the situation a “circus match.”
China’s Lin Dan also spoke out against the players not playing within the “Olympic spirit”, but added that the round-robin format was also to blame for the controversy. (AP)
