JAKARTA: Badminton's powerbrokers admitted Tuesday they needed to re-examine the rules after South Korea threw a match at the prestigious Thomas Cup here.
South Korea's Hong Ji-hoon plays a shot agaisnt Malaysia's Wong Choong Hann during their match at the Thomas Cup badminton championships in Jakarta on Monday. [Agencies] |
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) acknowledged the controversy could mar the reputation of the sport's premier team event and that tanking cheated spectators.
BWF deputy president Punch Gunalan said the current format, which allows teams to deliberately finish bottom of their group yet still make the quarterfinals and avoid the favorites, needed to change.
"We introduced the current format in the 2004 Jakarta edition to give a chance for smaller nations to play in the event," he said, explaining that the BWF wanted to promote the sport to all five continents.
"We wanted teams to play at least three ties and there were no complaints until now. However with the latest development, we now need to sit and talk about changing the format."
He added that he did not blame the Koreans as they had broken no rules.
The tournament, which runs alongside the women's Uber Cup, was plunged into controversy on Monday when South Korean team manager Kim Jong-Soo said the team's tactics was to avoid winning its group.
The reason, he said, was to give the team a more favorable quarterfinal draw. It duly lost to England and Malaysia, fielding weakened teams.
The tournament is structured so the top finisher in each three-team group receives a bye to the quarterfinals, while the other two play an elimination game to make the last eight.
If Korea finished top of its group it faced the prospect of meeting defending champion China in the semifinals. As it is, it finished third as planned.
It means it plays minnow Canada in the elimination game. If it wins that it is in the quarters and would avoid China until the final.
Gunalan said the BWF would consider in the future having the top two teams automatically progress to the quarterfinals with a playoff for the minor places.
Badminton is an Olympic sport and is already struggling with an admission earlier this year by Chinese head coach Li Yongbo of match fixing at the 2004 Athens Games.
Two Chinese players, Zhou Mi and Zhang Ning, were drawn together in the semifinal there and Li admitted ordering Zhou to lose as he felt Zhang would have a better chance of going on to win gold, which she did.
Li told China Central Television in March that the Chinese team had nothing to be ashamed of.
"It shows our patriotism and in fact I am proud of it."
His admission revived long-standing concern about behind-the-scenes arrangements at top international table tennis and badminton events.
Zhou subsequently quit the Chinese team and went to Hong Kong.
Zhang is still playing but was not picked for the Uber Cup tournament here with Li saying she was injured and her chances of defending her Olympic title were "up in the air".
