Several badminton players disqualified for trying to lose in the badminton scandal
A badminton scandal took China by storm when Chinese Olympics badminton players deliberately lost the game. But China isn’t the only Asian country taking slack. South Korea and Indonesia allegedly joined in on the hope to appear rise rapidly from the bottom.
The World Badminton Federation disqualified eight players from these Asian teams. The players disqualified included Yu Yang and teammate Wang Xiaoli. The disqualifications were on the grounds that the teams were “not using one’s best efforts to win a match.”
The badminton scandal stemmed from the teams’ objective of purposely losing games so they would be placed higher for the knockout portion of the game.
The badminton scandal sparked in the wake of previous suspicion of China’s performance in the Olympics.
At the Olympics four years ago, Yang even made a public apology to China, admitting that her team was not playing up to its full potential.
China’s Global Times featured an opinion piece that read the disappointment among the country.
“Match fixing tramples on sports ethics and shouldn’t be tolerated,” read the article, referring to the badminton scandal.
A public apology was demanded from the head badminton coach for causing the badminton scandal. Li Yongbo took all blame for the team’s unacceptable strategy.
Yongbo took criticism for trying to keep the team’s energy up by not pushing them hard in the earlier rounds.
Yang bid farewell to badminton for good after the badminton scandal. But the Indonesians and South Koreans were aggravated when their teams were disqualified in the badminton scandal. They solely blame the Chinese.
Some are blaming the new competition system for the badminton scandal, and they disagree with separating losers of the match from other players.
Susan Susanti, gold medalist of the 1992 Olympics badminton said, “But I also regret the BWF’s decision that applied for the first time a competition system which gives a player a chance to lose a game in order to avoid certain opponents in the following match.”
