South Korea sending home badminton players disqualified for throwing matches

Head badminton referee Torsten Berg, second from right, talks to South Korea's head badminton coach Sung Han-kook, right, after Berg issued a black card to the players in the women's doubles badminton match between South Korea's Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung, and Indonesia's Meiliana Jauhari and Greysia Polii at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 31, 2012, in London. At left is an unidentified South Korean coach. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton) / Andres Leighton

(AP) SEOUL, South Korea - The South Korean Olympic delegation is sending home four badminton players disqualified for trying to lose matches at the London Games.

Chief South Korean delegate Lee Ki-heung tells The Associated Press that the two women's doubles pairs will leave London as early as Friday along with their coach. Lee spoke by phone from London.

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Eight badminton players disqualified from Olympics

Two other doubles teams, from China and Indonesia, were also kicked out of the games earlier this week after deliberately playing poorly to secure a more favorable draw in the next round.

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The International Olympic Committee is demanding further investigation by national Olympic committees. The IOC wants coaches, trainers and officials punished if they encouraged or ordered the eight players to lose intentionally.

Lee says the four South Korean players and their coach violated the Olympic spirit of fair play and sportsmanship.

[davcor2]

With many countries it is never about how you play the game, it's about winning. Can a country's coaches completely lack the confidence in it's athletes to intentionally manuever the field of opponents to insure an easier placement ? Obviously ! And we thought dopping was bad . . . . .

[credibility2]

The IOC should ban any country guilty of from competing for several successive Olympic events.

[Yeah_Its_Me]

Most if not all of these players don't have the power to decide if they throw a match or not. It is decided for them. Particularly in such a controlling country as China! So for me it's not a question of if the coaches were involved - they were - it's a question of whether the players would risk the punishment that would come from telling what they know.