In contrary to your view, I think it is good for the sport of Badminton in future. It send the right message to the younger generation "Don't cheat and you will get caught".
The ban is 2 years. To represent another country, I think is also 2 years after last played for the home country. Maybe they would still continue to represent KOR after the ban. It could be earlier, minus Sundays, holidays and good behavior.
It's all gonna be a PR show with the appeals likely to be successful and the punishments metted down to a couple of months suspension.
Just a clarification. KBA are their employers. If your employer fired you, can they ban you from working in that field for 2 years? Definitely not. Only BWF can enforce a worldwide ban and BWF only disqualified them from one tournament. To represent another country in things like Uber Cup would need more than 2 years. Not the case for SuperSeries tournaments. Remember the M'sian singles player who left BAM (forgot the name now). He can still play tournaments outside of Malaysia - it's just that he cannot be registered by BAM. So, KBA can ban them from playing Korean badminton. It is definitely not the case that they can be banned from working for other badminton associations.
Not too sure, the MAS player's case is slightly different. BAM's ban was only confined to Asia if I am not wrong and the player can compete as an individual. As for the KORs, the ban is international. See attached article. Well, just wait for the outcome of the appeal. Excerpts from Badzine : At a disciplinary hearing, the Badminton Korea Association (BKA) decided to terminate the positions of both Head Coach Sung Han Kook and women’s doubles coach Kim Moon Soo for their role in the match-throwing incident that tainted the recent London Olympic Games (see related article here). In a report released today, Korea’s Yonhap News Agency mentioned that the BKA had also decided to suspend the four players who were already ejected from the Olympic women’s doubles competition by the Badminton World Federation for attempting to throw their final group matches (see related article here). If the decision stands, Kim Min Jung, Ha Jung Eun, Kim Ha Na, and Jung Kyung Eun will be prevented from playing domestic or international matches for two years, at which time Kim Min Jung, the elder stateswoman on the Korean doubles squad, will have just had her 28th birthday. The BKA is giving the players and coaches until August 21st to appeal, with a final decision expected to be made at an Executive Committee meeting on the 22nd.
That means the Korean WD are banned from representing Korea for 2 years.It does not mean they cant represent other countries, as the ban is by KBA not BWF like Cheung says. Tan Chun Seang is banned from tournaments in Asia for 2 years when he went independent. He still can reprsent Malaysia. Its a compromise from the earlier total ban Ganga Rao wanted to impose. Its a prob for player as the country's BA must endorse the participation. If the association refuse to endorse, the player in deep trouble
I wonder how many in the audience at the Wembley Arena watching the farce actually asked themselves:" Hey,these are Olympians who dream of winning an Olympic medal,why are they doing this, playing to lose? Something wrong with the system or format, exploiting a loophole for an advantage? Losing a match in order to win a tournament? " The great majority just went there to be entertained, not to have to think; obviously and rightly as paying customers, they and the TV audience demanded their due for their time and money spent. So a message had to be sent and the spectators had to be appeased and out went the culpable players who were disqualified. Nothing to do with anybody else, the coaches,BWF,etc. End of story at the Olympics. Whether there should be a probe, an investigative analysis and reflection of the whys and wherefores, followed by remedial action and a solution to prevent future occurrence - not a word uttered by those in charge. And now BKA suddenly comes out with this - more severe punishment for the already punished offenders to see who dares to do it in future. Isn't it excessive, not quite right? It's like "Littering ,fine $500 !", and then somebody in authority says "Nope,not enough,penalise the litter bug again with $5000 to serve as a severe warning to the rest" (How easy for him to do). It never occurs to him to think of, besides the fine, how about public education, providing more litter bins at convenient locations, and suchlike. Perhaps,as someone insinuated,Dr Kang as a Korean and President of BWF is in an awkward and embarrassing position and has to be seen to do something more drastic. Well,let's see how it goes. Interesting times for Koreran badminton ahead and for the badminton world at large.
Please be reminded that these players went to the Olympics to win the gold medal, not to win every match, every game or every point. They would have proven that they are the best when they have the gold medal hanging on their necks. Even with a deliberate loss, they are still true to their mission. Surely, those ugly matches were detrimental to the sport and all involved players should be and had been punished. That should be the end of it. I can't help but feel that BWF wanted to use the opportunity to send a message to LYB. If that's the case, I don't disagree with it either. But the attack on the players must stop. They were just doing their job and they paid for their poor performance (literally and figuratively) already. In contrast, the British cyclists and rowers exhibited even less sportsmanship than these players but they were hailed as heroes. Where is the justice? After watching the first one of the infamous matches, in hindsight, I would disqaulify all four players on the spot for their poor act in the first game. I would also consider giving YY a three months suspension because she was the only one out of the four players playing to lose with total disregard in the second game. With that, the fiasco of the second match would not occur. All considered, if they played like they did (except for YY) in the second game from the start, I would give them just a suspended disqualification. We all know what it was. That's just how the system works. Athletes in other sports regularly do the same. It is so sad to see that KBA acted so mindlessly on the poor girls while BWF does not seem to do anything to capitalize on the chance to deal with LYB.
I keep seeing this bull$hit being written over and over again. Folks!! THEY BROKE THE RULES ie THEY CHEATED. There is no justification for doing so. You could write the same crap about any other type of cheating. Hell, with your mind set why don't we just allow doping and other performance enhancing drugs? After all, they are widely available to any athlete who wants them. If it is only about winning a gold and all other considerations be damned, then why not. Let those who are willing to put their health on the line to win gold be rewarded over those pansies who are too afraid to risk it. Also, you whole point is destroyed by the very fact that these women chose to follow their coaches orders in the face of being warned that doing so would result in a DQ shows they weren't committed to winning gold. They clearly put the wishes of the coaches over their desire to win gold. So again the argument that these women went to the Olympics to win gold falls flat. They clearly went to the Olympics to follow orders.
Great move by the Korean, now lets see what China and Indonesia will do next ....? Quite pity Kim Moon Soo.....he was there to complaint to the umpire of the match about the way YY/WXL played, but too bad his players followed the Chn player with the wrong doing !!
Pity Kim Min Jung/Ha Jung Eun and Kim Ha Na/Jung KyUNG Eun... i hope their appeal is succesful... imo, this decision is very very harsh to them... what will happen to their career after this??
appeal on what ground? They are punished for not doing their job that they were paying for. they been told to throw the matches and ended up as winners, TWICE. As for the coaches they were sacked again for not doing their job. they were paid to win medals!
You Throw Matches and you end up "winning". There is a strong point for argument. I believe the Korean players will "escape" the harsh punishment. Or reduced the sentence to a shorter period.
2 years is a long time, maybe 4-6 months would be more appropiate . They can take a break, reflect , train hard and come back stronger for the Korean Open next year
Well said. As we are living in a diverse world, you can keep your opinion and we can keep ours. Not everything is simply black & white/ good & evil.
2 years is a bit harsh for the players; if they'd disobeyed the coaches they'd have come off pretty badly. Coaches sacked? Yes, but the best result would be the abandonment of that idiotic group system.
