Yes, this was stupidity to play like they did making it obvious they were playing to lose putting in jeopardy the spirit of Olympics and they got punishment as well, But is it enough? Would it prove to be a deterrent for future events and we would see an end to things like this, once and for all? My guess is no, this could prove to be an end to the stupidity they showed by making it so obvious hitting the net, not being able to serve so often but this step from the authorities would just curb this kind of play leaving room for walk-overs, still playing to lose but not making it too obvious, when you can score upto 19 points in a game and still lose. Rules should be made to curb this kind of unfair play, but its hard to detect such decptive plays where in you just fix a few points deliberatley hitting it out, in the net, misjudging it to land inside your court or something like that. Is such a behaviour/manipulation fine? within the sport spirit? Olympics spirit? and should be left away with or there should be something really done to stop that happen? In here the JPN obviously did it and came to nobodies notice, while the CHN-KOR-INA does the same and get booed all along more so gets disqualified as well... How big an irony... The authorities must definitely need to do something to stop cases like that as well... its not justice if you act against one while leaving the other... or the authorities were not trying to tackle the larger issue but just the stupidity or telling the players dude we know what you are upto but next time just make it less obvious, or we shall spank you!! If the authorities act tough even those actions could be easily curbed, then why don't the authorities do that to raise the respect for the game? Whats STOPPING them?
The BWF DQed 8, try to stop the bleeding from the open wound. It's already risky, as the quality of event is going down. So, unless they have no choice, JP (another OG power from financial and political speaking) will be protected as much as they could. Sadly, there's no perfect system to prevent such "deceptive" strategies, as you mentioned. Unless there's obvious evidence (which almost never the case), or un-controllable pressure (this 8 DQ case), they will not try to risk any further damage to the image. The only way I can think, is to improve their system (format), to reduce the chance or motivation of the strategies. However, that might be a bit easier said than done.
Is disqualification of 4 WD teams enough? Who knows. Given strong evidence, IOC & BWF might go as far as stripped of Lin Dan and Zhang Ning gold medal. If that happens, LYB might regret his comments on "that" particular game. After all,so many players had their olympic medals stripped of. I believe they gave harshest punishment to save badminton (remaining) image. Badminton is a less popular game but made it into headline in a worst possible way in a time where it needs a lot of support (sponsorship etc). I didn't see Japan WD match, but these 4 unfortunate pairs got warning of a black card in the middle of the game but still played the same but with better acting. If the Japan WD did get the warning but still followed the "unsportwomanship" spirit (big IF here), then yes, they might be the next target to be disqualified. By the way, does this Japanese pair really that good? I thought they lost because they aren't that great to begin with. Recently Japanese player gets better, but no matter their how high their rank, the possibility of losing to noname player is quite high. They don't play as consistent as the Chinese player or Korean player.
DQ is the serve as warning. If they were to strip here there everywhere, there might not be badminton in future olympics.Hopefully, the rest of "conspirators" wake up their blardy idea.Think it's time to let this matter rest. No matter what we say,type will bring back wadever there is to back. So, let's move on....to a new chapter and enjoy the remaining games ya?Peace
The JPN players are in the Semis after defeating the Danes and now they should win a silver... while the Chinese Taipei players went on to play CHN team and lost in the quarterfinals which would have been JPN teams fate otherwise if they would have won... obviously a very high suspect case... They got away with it, just because they aint CHN or KOR team and didnt made it so much obvious by idiotically hitting the net, they just hit it out, missed a shot at crucial points when required in the first game and conserved energy you may say in the 2nd game... while being fully aware of the draws for the next round... Poor CHN taipei couldnt do the same coz they didn't had qualified already so if they wld have lost they were out of the games. Shouldn't a case like that be dealt with in the future? or you should still leave scopes for these to re-occur, its easy for a doctor to certify medical conditions for a walk-over, Player intentionally playing to lose when the outcome of losing is more favourable could be stopped by letting them play at same time in different locations (if required dont allow access to the info regarding the other games.) Make out draws after the group games and so on...
Yes, they are suspicious, but we need a legitimate proof here. No, they might not get silver if they lose in semi, they might even get nothing or win the silver or the gold. Possibly no one want it to re-occur, in fact when it happens in many previous tournament a lot of people were showing a lot of discontent. When BWF finally showed some balls, and the decision was a drastic ones, still a lot of discontent. BWF weren't doing their job well, so were the player, coach, and federation. At this point, I think everyone learned valuable lesson in a tough way which is good. A lot of players are sacrificed already in Olympic and previous tournaments to uphold the rule. Hopefully this is the last time it happens and everyone able to move forward. Anyway I can sympathize with the unfortunate player which affected by the drama and their supporter with great attachment to the player. So many interest, stakes, and feeling here.
Blaming all this, on the players and some named team-managers that is trying to optimize their chances of winning gold, within the rules set by the organizers and federation have set, is just plain moronic!! BWF/IOC needs to implement a system WHERE YOU DON'T GET ANY BENEFITS FROM LOOSING.. This is the ONLY and LOGICAL action! Its like a government carrying out a system giving more money to people if they are unemployed than what they get paid from employment. And then act surprised and upset about all the people that do not apply for work in this system...and blame these individuals for having low work-moral.
I think they are all to blame, BWF responsibles, coaches, players: BWF responsibles shall apologize for having been so stupid to introduce an obviously poor system despite all criticisms in advance, pointing out that this can't happen in a purely KO-based system and that, therefore, they will change back to that former system; if BWF responsibles don't want to change back -> fire them! Coaches - at least Li Yong Bo - shall be fired for protecting and presumably even promoting players' behaviour which was so harmful to our beloved badminton! A good coach (and good players) would have accepted the current round robin system and given their best for the sake of the Olympic spirit and the image of badminton. Afterwards they could have raised the issue that the situation created by the system suggested to lose but that they had given their best anyway, thereby both improving the image of badminton and making BWF responsibles hopefully changing back to the former system. Players shall be disqualified for playing bad on purpose and harming the image of badminton. I don't care if their coaches want them to lose, if they really want to give their best, that's what they do, no matter what coaches say. There are other examples in which players don't always follow their coaches' suggestions. On top of that, if the players don't understand what they've been doing to badminton even after disqualification, I like to see them retire instead of seeing them on court anytime again. Many people try hard to improve badminton's image, now this incidence ruined a lot of their work, as badminton is hardly ever in widespread media but now only with respect to this disgrace. And those involved, they should have anticipated it, especially as they had been warned that this situation may come. Either they were too stupid to understand or they didn't care, no matter what, they shall be fired. What would happen otherwise? If it continued like that, maybe we'd have the same situation as with TV providers not wanting to broadcast the Tour de France anymore because of all the doping scandals? I guess we don't want that...