8 BADMINTON PLAYERS SENT HOME FOR DELIBERATELY LOSING MATCHES

All eight badminton players at the centre of a match-throwing scandal at the London 2012 Olympics have been disqualified.

The top seeds from China, two pairs from South Korea and another from Indonesia deliberately conceded points in an apparent attempt to lose their matches and manipulate the quarter-final draw in the women’s badminton doubles.

At a hearing held this morning, the decision was taken to disqualify the four pairs from the Olympics.

All eight had previously been charged by the Badminton World Federation with “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”.

The Indonesians and Koreans have appealed against the decision and the outcome of that is expected to be communicated before the evening session, when the pairs were scheduled to play.

If disqualified it is thought the schedule will be reconstituted.

One suggestion for who will take their place is to allow the pairs who finished third and fourth in the groups behind the disqualified players to take their places in draw.

The match-throwing scandal began when top seeds Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang appeared to engineer defeat against Korea's Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na to avoid finishing top of their group.

That would have kept them in the opposite side of the draw to compatriots Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei, meaning the Chinese would meet in the final, instead of the semi-final.

The Koreans responded by apparently trying to lose themselves, before a second pair from their country, Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung, took the retaliation further by failing to play properly against Indonesia's Meiliana Jauhari and Greysia Polii.

In turn, the Indonesians then became involved themselves.

Former British badminton star Gail Emms had led calls for the four women's pairs to be kicked out of the Games.

She also claimed the referee had been warned before the matches that something 'dodgy' could happen, but the concerns were dismissed.

Emms, who won Olympic silver with Nathan Robertson in the mixed doubles in Athens in 2004, was outraged by the conduct and told BBC Radio Five Live: 'This is the Olympic Games, if badminton wants to save face I personally feel they should disqualify the four pairs and re-instate the pairs who came third and fourth in the group and then have a better competition.

'You cannot do this in an Olympic Games, this is something that is not acceptable and it just makes not only our sport but the organisers and the poor crowd who had to watch, who pay good money to watch two matches....it was just disgraceful, absolutely disgraceful.

'I would disqualify them.'

Lord Sebastian Coe described the conduct of the badminton players as 'depressive' and 'unacceptable' as spectators in the crowd were treated to a farce.

The decision by the BWF to introduce a group stage rather than hold a straight knockout competition had not been universally popular.

Fears that players could contrive results had even been expressed to tournament referee Thorsten Berg by some teams earlier in the day.

France coach Fabrice Vallet said: "By deciding to organise the tournament with a group section, when you had two doubles pairs of certain countries, it was obvious something like this would happen. It happened.

"During the team managers' meeting I think the Australian team manager asked the question about the situation.

"He was asking for all the matches to be played at the same time to avoid this type of thing."

Berg himself became involved in the commotion when he entered the court to disqualify the second Korean pair and the Indonesians but retracted his decision.

The BWF themselves have not had an auspicious Olympics having upset several players on the eve of competition by making wholesale revisions to the playing schedule.

It transpired the governing body had not followed their own regulations for arranging fixtures in group stages.

All eight badminton players at the centre of a match-throwing scandal at the London 2012 Olympics have been disqualified.

The top seeds from China, two pairs from South Korea and another from Indonesia deliberately conceded points in an apparent attempt to lose their matches and manipulate the quarter-final draw in the women’s badminton doubles.

At a hearing held this morning, the decision was taken to disqualify the four pairs from the Olympics.

All eight had previously been charged by the Badminton World Federation with “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”.

The Indonesians and Koreans have appealed against the decision and the outcome of that is expected to be communicated before the evening session, when the pairs were scheduled to play.

If disqualified it is thought the schedule will be reconstituted.

One suggestion for who will take their place is to allow the pairs who finished third and fourth in the groups behind the disqualified players to take their places in draw.

The match-throwing scandal began when top seeds Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang appeared to engineer defeat against Korea's Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na to avoid finishing top of their group.

That would have kept them in the opposite side of the draw to compatriots Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei, meaning the Chinese would meet in the final, instead of the semi-final.

The Koreans responded by apparently trying to lose themselves, before a second pair from their country, Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung, took the retaliation further by failing to play properly against Indonesia's Meiliana Jauhari and Greysia Polii.

In turn, the Indonesians then became involved themselves.

Former British badminton star Gail Emms had led calls for the four women's pairs to be kicked out of the Games.

She also claimed the referee had been warned before the matches that something 'dodgy' could happen, but the concerns were dismissed.

Emms, who won Olympic silver with Nathan Robertson in the mixed doubles in Athens in 2004, was outraged by the conduct and told BBC Radio Five Live: 'This is the Olympic Games, if badminton wants to save face I personally feel they should disqualify the four pairs and re-instate the pairs who came third and fourth in the group and then have a better competition.

'You cannot do this in an Olympic Games, this is something that is not acceptable and it just makes not only our sport but the organisers and the poor crowd who had to watch, who pay good money to watch two matches....it was just disgraceful, absolutely disgraceful.

'I would disqualify them.'

Lord Sebastian Coe described the conduct of the badminton players as 'depressive' and 'unacceptable' as spectators in the crowd were treated to a farce.

The decision by the BWF to introduce a group stage rather than hold a straight knockout competition had not been universally popular.

Fears that players could contrive results had even been expressed to tournament referee Thorsten Berg by some teams earlier in the day.

France coach Fabrice Vallet said: "By deciding to organise the tournament with a group section, when you had two doubles pairs of certain countries, it was obvious something like this would happen. It happened.

"During the team managers' meeting I think the Australian team manager asked the question about the situation.

"He was asking for all the matches to be played at the same time to avoid this type of thing."

Berg himself became involved in the commotion when he entered the court to disqualify the second Korean pair and the Indonesians but retracted his decision.

The BWF themselves have not had an auspicious Olympics having upset several players on the eve of competition by making wholesale revisions to the playing schedule.

It transpired the governing body had not followed their own regulations for arranging fixtures in group stages.