I agree with thunder, the BWF is at fault for the bad structure, but the players/coaches are also at fault for offering a poor show. Yes the structure is bad, but players should deal with it, play for the fans and report the obvious flaws to the BWF and push hard to make it change instead of trying to take advantage of it.
Personally think it's very very stupid for the olympics to go with the round robin format in the first place... Just look at tennis, it's single match elimination. What are they trying to achieve with the round robin format other than having more matches or making sure the favorites don't fall victim to an upset??? The same thing happens in football/soccer as well, if a team already made it through in the group stage, would it try the hardest in a meaningless game and risk any sort of injury at all when a knockout stage is coming? I don't know why the olympic organizers are that stupid and not see it coming....
Guys, I think you're missing the point here. It CLEARLY was a protest for that korean fencing misfortune LOL
Pretty much what I was going to write. Most sporting teams already in the next round generally will rest certain players - while not match fixing, it can influence the result of the game. Dont know why the players made the match fixing so obvious though.
Jasonvan, you said it the best so far!! It's so amazing IF BWF is so shortsighted that they are not able to foresee the potential problem of a bad structured group match (round robin)! Mindless and brainless! But of course they can walk away and clean up their hands, instead innocently putting the entire blame to those players and/or coaches involved!
The fans and supporters of the team who throw matches away and kept a blind eye for so long are part of the culprit.
LOL it is also mindless and brainless of the fans to be surprised by this given all the match fixing/WO issues endemic of the game. Good to know that badminton is populated by players who behave to the lowest common denominator as long as there is some justification to do so. Also good to know that this is A-OK with so many as long as cheaters play under the right flag.
BWF should have known, it was shocking to see they implement such a structure for the Olympics as a one off thing what the hell...
Basically this is a lose lose situation for BWF and badminton players. BWF and the coaches to balme . BWF for come out with this stupid idea. They should fire the people who suggested this idea. And the coaches. Cause the players only listen to what the coaches said. Sure, theythrowing they can rebel and not throwing the matches. But you bet they will not get sent or black list by their coaches in future event. Badminton should be more professional and individual like tennis. Players will not throw any matches . The players hired and fired the coaches and not the other way around. Good news is between canada, Russia, South Africa and Australia WD pairs, one of them will get a bronze medal.
BWF should have known but what kind of a sport has to take into account that cheating will occur among players. It should not have to be a consideration when structuring tournaments.
The last round meaningless or negative meaning matches were tasteless at the begining, players have to deliver results instead of pleasing audiences. Players have spent their whole life hard fighting for the medals, while audience's satisfactory last only 20 minutes. On the other hand, we can blame players didn't show their best in the match, which audience may qualify for the discount of their tickets. But BWF and Olympic organization canceled all the matches between them, so they should refund all the ticket money back (instead of just discount) to all the audience, and also the broadcasting fees to every country paid for it.
blame ZYL/TQ for losing. seriously, i would place the blame on bwf unless this was their aim in the first place.
group system is the main cause, the coaches are to blame because they're telling their players to lose and ignore the olympic spirit (sportsmanship in general) and the players are to blame because they didn't protest against the decision of their coaches 8they're less guilty though)...so for me it's everyone.
the pitfalls of the grouping/advancing were obvious at the begining. when IBF found out, they should have modified it by adding something like: at the first the knockout stage, when group winner playing another group's runner up, the winner should have a 1:0 lead in sets/games by default; which means the runner up has to win 2 straight sets to win, otherwise lose. That way, players have something to fight for. Neither BWF, nor Olympics organizations, have the authority to order the players how to play the matches to correct their (BWF's) own pitfalls. BWF/Olympics should not cancel the matches for committing bigger crime to cover their mistakes.
