4 Chinese badminton players have been given suspended sentences.© AFP
Four Chinese badminton players have been punished for violating anti-corruption rules by failing to play their best in doubles, the sport’s governing body said Friday. He Ji Ting, Tan Qiang, Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen have been hit with a three-month ban, but the sentences have been suspended for two years, according to the Badminton World Federation. If recidivism occurs within two years, the ban will come into effect. The rule violation occurred at the 2018 Fuzhou China Open, when Li and Liu He and Tan played in the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles.
Another player watching the match raised the alarm with officials over suspicions that the doubles were not doing their best to win the match.
During a break in the game, the umpires urged the players to put in more effort. Their performance then improved significantly, and He and Tan went on to beat their higher-ranked rivals.
Badminton authorities filed a complaint and, after a lengthy investigation, a panel found that the players had broken rules aimed at fighting corruption by not trying their best to win a match.
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Two other charges, including trying to correct the outcome of the match, were dismissed for lack of evidence.
The players had denied all allegations.
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