Olympic female badminton players face charges

[Nye Bevan]

The Badminton World Federation has charged eight female Olympic doubles players with "not using one's best efforts to win a match". Four pairs of players - two from South Korea, one from China and one from Indonesia - could be disciplined.

The longest rally in their game lasted four shots, with match referee Thorsten Berg coming on to court at one point to warn the players. The players also appeared to deliberately serve into the net and hit the shuttlecock out of the court.

Both pairs were already through to the quarter-finals. Reports have suggested they both wanted to lose to secure an easier draw.

....

At one point the referee, Berg, again intervened and brandished a black card to disqualify the players. However, he then rescinded his decision following protests from the two teams. Both teams appeared keen to lose and therefore not play the Chinese in the next round, but the Koreans eventually won by two sets to one.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19074013

[Poll_Blind]

1. I just read this a few minutes ago...that's crazy! I'd love to see the oddball video of...

...the way they played.

Unlike these folks- I have no idea who they are but both teams are drumming their asses off on the court:

That's some awesome playing!

PB

[HopeHoops]

9. Badminton is best played naked, drunk, stoned, coed, and with ZZ Top blasting.

Well, that's how I think it should be played.

Sadly, they can't do that at the Olympics.

[Poiuyt]

12. The ancient Olympians competed nude

And if women were caught watching them, they were stoned to death. We'll have to do without ZZ Top though.

[HopeHoops]

13. Yeah, well we covered the stoned and women parts, but how about the drunken part?

[dballance]

2. Is there something nefarious going on in badminton?

Are bookies around the world so into every competition that even badminton is being tarnished by accusations of players throwing games? Or is there some advantage these teams get this way that I just don't understand because I don't have the foggiest clue about rules for badminton matches?

Anyone able to shed some light on this?

[DCKit]

3. Your darkest imaginings are probably correct. nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. I think it's just the way the draw goes

Typically, you have something like group matches first, and then, say, the winner of one group plays the runner-up of another. It sounds like, in this case, a very good pair - the Chinese #1 pair - had unexpectedly come 2nd in their group - so whoever won another group would face them next. These teams thought they still didn't fancy playing the Chinese, so they wanted to lose their final match.

It can turn up in any sport, and you wonder sometimes if teams or players do this, but it's not often this obvious (and not often, I think, when two teams who want to avoid the top spot are playing each other, so they end up playing really badly, rather than 'not quite at their best' against some opposition who'd still rather win).

You couldn't rule out betting fixes, I suppose, but they tend to want to be not so obvious as this.

[TheMadMonk]

5. Didn't read very far into the OP did you?

They wanted a more advantageous draw in subsequent rounds.

Nothing to do with betting. Just cheats wanting a better shot at the medal rounds at someone else's expense.

[dballance]

7. Yes I did read the whole post. I already admitted to not understanding the rules so a Draw

means nothing to me without background.

I'd be happy for you to explain how it works to me since I am ignorant. Learning something new would be good. And, BTW those guys in the video were certainly taking no prisoners. It was fun to watch.

[malaise]

8. Athletes have manipulated games for better draws

for a very long time. Once teams or individuals qualify for QFs, and know who they don't want to face in the SFs, it isn't hard. Used to happen a lot in world cup football but they now make teams play at the same time to prevent this.

[Berlum]

6. Badminton has gone to Hell in a Handbasket since RepubliWankers came on the scene.

Coincidence? Ummmm, hmmmmm...

.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. All 8 provisionally disqualified; Indonesia and South Korea appeal

Eight badminton players have been disqualified from the doubles 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.
Play media

Indonesia and South Korea have appealed and a decision is expected before Wednesday's quarter-finals at 1900 BST.

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

[Nye Bevan]

11. I guess the moral is that it may be OK not to bring your "A" game,

but you can't get away with bringing your "Z" game.