8 cheeky Babmington players disqualified from Olympics.....

[i_like_cake]

Seeing as the Olympics thread is a minute by minute commentry of the sport on tv at the time, i thought this headline might have been lost..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19072677

Olympics badminton: Eight women disqualified from doublesEight badminton players have been disqualified from the women's doubles competition after being accused of "not using one's best efforts to win".
Two pairs from South Korea and one each from China and Indonesia made a series of basic errors in Tuesday's matches.
All four pairs were accused of wanting to lose, in an attempt to manipulate the draw for the knockout stage.
.......


Who would have realised that the Babmington World Federation would be a shining beacon in stamping down this sort of thing...

I was immediately reminded of Scotland Versus New Zealand in the 2007 world cup..!

[John123]

Ireland v Holland Italia 90 comes to mind...

I think this takes it to another level though in fairness.

[i_like_cake]

oh yea... good point... I remember reading about it in, I think Mick McCarthy´s book... and the only person who seemed to be making an effort up to the very end, was Niall Quin....... it was described well in the book....

[i_like_cake]

Chinese badminton coach apologises after players kicked out

China's Olympic badminton head coach has apologised for his role after his two top players were disqualified for not playing to win.
Li Yongbo said: "It's me to blame", while disqualified player Yu Yang declared she was quitting the sport.

[Grandpasimpson]

oh yea... good point... I remember reading about it in, I think Mick McCarthy´s book... and the only person who seemed to be making an effort up to the very end, was Niall Quin....... it was described well in the book....

Its a bit different in sports like the game referred to in that not every play made is a potential score, it would be different though if lads started treating penalties like kickouts or just blatently kicking the ball out of play in the opposite direction.

[Evil Omer]

You do have to question how fair it is on the players as they wouldn't have come up with this on their own

[DONC]

I have not really followed this story but were they trying to throw a game so as they would miss each other in the next rounds thus giving themselves a potentially easier run to the finals?

If so what was wrong with that, if we have two real medal chances in any Olympic sport, they had already qualified for the next round and had the opportunity to avoid each other until the final would you want them to. I would but then I may be missing something with this story.

[i_like_cake]

I think it came down to integrity of the game, the olympic spirit if you wish to call it here.... and also it would have annoyed greatly the paying punter both in the stadium and the global television audience....

[Balla Boy]

I think it came down to integrity of the game, the olympic spirit if you wish to call it here.... and also it would have annoyed greatly the paying punter both in the stadium and the global television audience....

If I'd paid to watch badminton I'd expect to be annoyed. I'm not sure how they managed to distinguish between a group of not really sportspeople wafting ineffectively at each other and the "real thing" to be honest.

[DONC]

I think it came down to integrity of the game, the olympic spirit if you wish to call it here.... and also it would have annoyed greatly the paying punter both in the stadium and the global television audience....

The Olympic spirit is long long since gone I think.

Would I have been annoyed had I paid good money to go and watch that yes of course I would but thems the breaks. Its no worse than turning up at Muzzers or TP and watching two reserve teams plod away in the guise of a Rabo league match or turning up at TP to watch a latter stage Heino group match against most any French team who dont turn up. It happens its part of sport kicking them out was way OTT in my view.

[Balla Boy]

I read that a number of people had predicted the problem when they saw the structure for the competition. I suspect that it was marker laid down for the future as much as anything.

[i_like_cake]

Still... some cojones on the BWF...... Scotland in the last world cup would have been out on their ear pulling that stunt against NZ...

[banjaxed]

IS this not the same sort of thing..........?

The International Olympic Committee says it has no plans to investigate comments by a British track cycling gold medalist who suggested that he crashed on purpose early in the race.
Philip Hindes told reporters that the strategy in the team sprint final was "if we have a bad start, we need to crash to get a restart."
The 19-year-old wobbled starting the three-lap race against France and fell at the first bend. The British trio won the restarted race.
Spokesman Mark Adams says the IOC agrees with cycling's governing body that "the result is not in question."
Adams says the incident is different from the four women'sbadminton pairs who were disqualified for playing to lose. He says the "best efforts" were made by the British team."

[Evil Omer]

I think it is different, i.e. they played the rules in order to win whereas the others were actually deliberately trying to lose. But still you have to ask on the morality.

[KapKremmen]

I caught a glimpse of one of the games on tv. The crowd were really booing constantly like the whole thing was a farce. When its that obvious it demeans the competition.

Other connivances in other sports have lead to changes in the respective competitions. Austria vs East Germany where the played for a draw with neither team trying comes to mind. After that all final pool games have the same start time.

[Piquet]

I caught a glimpse of one of the games on tv. The crowd were really booing constantly like the whole thing was a farce. When its that obvious it demeans the competition.

Other connivances in other sports have lead to changes in the respective competitions. Austria vs East Germany where the played for a draw with neither team trying comes to mind. After that all final pool games have the same start time.

Firstly it was Austria v West Germany.
Secondly they played for a 1-0 win for West Germany, not a draw.
Thirdly even when both final pool games start at the same time, it didn't stop Ireland and Holland playing out time in 1990 because a draw qualified both teams once England had taken the lead over Egypt.

[Evil Omer]

Firstly it was Austria v West Germany.
Secondly they played for a 1-0 win for West Germany, not a draw.
Thirdly even when both final pool games start at the same time, it didn't stop Ireland and Holland playing out time in 1990 because a draw qualified both teams once England had taken the lead over Egypt.

But it does make it more difficult to rig when you don't already know what you have to do. When it gets to the point where the other group game has already finished you know what you need. When the other game is still ongoing you could seriously come unstuck trying to rig it. That's about as good as you can do to control it in terms of how you administer the competition.