Limited entries per "team" to the tournaments
The obvious solution is of course to have limited entries per "team" to the tournaments, and make sure "team-members" always are on opposites halves of the draw.
Maybe requiring players to have separate coaches, and to have players signing for tournaments and price money etc as individuals, not by the bodies and organisations in their countries and more clearly separate MS,MD,XD,WS,WD as separate events, may be one way to battle the "team"-thinking for individual events...
Hi twobeer,
This is actually happening in other sports... say, Swimming, for example.
I just posted this in another thread "
To improve the staging of Badminton at International matches" located at:
http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50303
Here, is what was posted...
Under FINA rules, countries are allowed a maximum of two swimmers per individual event at the Olympics.
In the USA and Australia, there are many swimmers who
not could participate, but they could meet the time standards to qualify, and they who could beat other nations' top swimmers.
Still, many support FINA rules...
Why allow a nation to clean sweep all 3 medals (Gold, Silver, Bronze)?
Why not allow more nations to participate ?
FINA even allow Wildcards for their Olympics events.
For those not familiar with Swimming, here is a USA article located at:
http://universalsports.nbcsports.com/articles/inside_sport/57?sport_id=21
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Qualifying
FINA, the world governing body for swimming, sets time standards that athletes must meet in order to qualify for the Olympics.
Countries are allowed a maximum of two swimmers in each individual event and one team in each relay event. A country may only send two swimmers if those swimmers both qualify under the "A" time standard set by FINA.If a country does not have a swimmer(s) who qualifies for an event under FINA's "A" time, it may still send a swimmer to the Olympics if it has a competitor who meets FINA's "B" standard for an event. In this case, one and only one competitor from a country can contest the particular event. In all cases, a country's National Olympic Committee holds the authority on choosing which competitors who qualify under the time standards will compete in the Games. No nation may enter more than 26 men and 26 women in the swimming competition.
10k open-water qualifying (men and women)
- Top 10 finishers from the FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships on April 29-May 4, 2008 in Seville, Spain.
- Top finishers from each of the five continental championships
- Nine or 10 top finishers, FINA Olympic Marathon Swim Qualifier, May 31-June 8, 2008 in Beijing
Total: 25 male athletes, 25 female athletes
U.S. trials
The United States swimming team for Beijing will be selected in July at the U.S. Swimming Trials in Omaha, Nebraska.
Under FINA rules, countries are allowed a maximum of two swimmers per individual event at the Olympics. Since the time standards to qualify for the U.S. Trials are nearly as stringent as those to qualify for the Games, the U.S. will have maximum representation in all 27 individual events on the Olympic program. In the 100m and 200m freestyle events, the top six finishers at the Olympic Trials earned Olympic berths. The top two will swim the 100m and 200m individual events in Athens, while the others will be used to fill out the four-member relay teams. Having two extra swimmers allows those participating individually to skip relay preliminaries.
Wildcards
Federations(Nations) without qualified swimmers may enter one man and one woman (regardless of time standards) in one competition each of their choice, if the individual(s) participated in the 2007 Swimming World Championships. According to FINA rules, FINA will determine whether to allow the swimmer(s) to compete at the Olympics, "based on their performance."
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I think FINA is more in tune with the Olympics Spirit than our BWF. 
Cheers... chris@ccc
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Good...Good...
