There are easy ways around the "2 week rest period" due to an injury. All the country association needs to do is look at the schedule and plan "an injury" in a tournament where they don't plan to field the player(s) for 2 weeks after. Sorry to sound so cynical but loopholes will always be found. It then becomes a game of whether the BWF of the country association can remain ahead of the other. Yes I agree the lack of an independent player structure in badminton plays into the hands of association manipulation. I wonder if tennis had such issues before the open era and how they dealt with them. The suspension will be a severe blow for the KBA as these 2 pairs are already well established and set to carry Korean WD for many years to come. This is such irony as Korea is one of the countries that has unashamedly manipulated matches and rolled out suspect line judges.
I think a one or two week period will not totally obliterate the problem but it will reduce the opportunities for 'retirements'. You cannot feign an injury on the first of a series of tournaments.
Is it possible Dr. Kang's position in BWF had something to do with this? Is there any "insider" news available?
This is total nonsense! The punishment does not fit the "crime" at all. Some people sitting on their high horse just want to wash their hands clean. This would be the correct punishment if these players intentionally threw away the competition. They didn't. What they did was doing their best to maximize their chance of winning the gold medal. Their only "crime" was doing it in too ugly of a way. Some sort of punishment is needed for the players, coaches and the team officials. But far, far below the act of banning. The ones should be fired are the chief operating officer of BWF and whoever came up the idea of introducing a group play stage. And the saddest thing: BWF did not even take advantage of the publicity that came with the "scandal" to promote badminton. This should be in business school case study for how not to run a business.
The punishment is too extreme to the players! It's not fair. On the other side, the Koreans don't have any WD/XD couple to play against CHN any more...
I think the coach firing is more to do with an excuse of "house cleaning", consider the team did rather poor overall this time. It's the time to replace with some "fresh blood" into the system, and this incident just give it a perfect excuse. Regarding the players, punishing the "lil guy" (or gal) is always the case in any system. However, I do believe the appeal will be successful to a certain degree. I think a ban for 3-6 months is more than enough. 2 years in a power house team, it's pretty much a death sentence.
Nice to see the national associations throwing their players under the bus. Maybe this will once and for all illustrate that one of the chief problems with the game is the National Associations. Get the flags out of the game. I actually hope that the CHN and INA players and coaches get the same or more severe punishments. Not because of any idea that they deserve their punishment but, perhaps it would make it clear once and for all to the players that the national associations do not look after their best interests. Perhaps it would lead to the players forming their own association and leading badminton to become a true professional sport.
According to Taiwanese news, KBA received many phone complaints from Korean public. 放水事件在南韓造成民怨,南韓羽協官員透露,「羽協的電話被抗議民眾打爆,都是辱罵與不滿的聲音。」南韓羽協官員無奈說,羽球在南韓是民眾關注的比賽,在奧運殿堂放水是非常難堪的醜聞,協會一定要重懲。 Maybe BC member Event can let us know more.
Send your support to the Korean player Badzine is organizing a public appeal to help the players http://www.badzine.net/features/open-letter-to-korean-badminton-association/20884/ The punishment is too harsh. Two years and the two pairs might as well go do something else with their life. China already metted out their punishment which is to make LYB and the women publicly apologize to the Chinese public for their part in the scandal!
Two years band is really bad for the koreans.. They were just doing what the coaches told them to do! Is it wrong to even listen to the coach?? U get punishment for not listening and now u even get punishment for listening??? this decision is really bad for the whole Korea badminton team. Other Korean players will start to question themselves on where their loyalty lies and this can be really bad for team spirits. They will have this doubts about what the coaches tell them to do in the future and may not perform well during tournaments... Lets appeal!
They train all their lives and then this happens and they're basically forced to retire and move on (unless they're VERY determined). Sure it's only fair and right that they be punished but who thought 2 years was a good idea? It's way over the top and leaves me feeling a little sick.
I think it serves it's purpose as a very strong deterrent for anyone with such thoughts in the future. ... at least as far as the Korean team is concerned...
You may be right to not let the players go for what they have done. But I think disqualification for the OG was itself a highest degree of punishment any athlete can get. Banning the players for two years is going overboard. Their careers are literally over. Its like expelling a child forever from school for cheating in an exam. Dont you think that would be too much? Everybody needs a chance to correct themselves. Korean Association has gone a bit too far. Firing coaches and reprimanding the players with other sort of punishment rather than banning them should've been reasonable as the players have already been punished during OG Its not good for the sport of badminton as it would be loosing 4 world class players. I highly doubt if CHN would be following the suite not sure about INA though.
I agree it is probably too heavy for the players but that means CHN and INA would have pressure to lay down appropriate punishment. I mean, despite trying to throw matches, KOR won the matches after all didn't they? The chinese started it and eventually they have 'successfully lost', so their punishment should be heavier.
If it is the coaches order, I pity the players. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Nah...LYB's job is safe. He just won 5 gold medals for CHN. He is untouchable.
Let's see....they are banned from Korea....but if another country would like to employ overseas internationals to help represent them internationally and provide quality sparring partners.......hmmm, UK, Singapore, Germany.....