Badminton chief Thomas Lund apologised for the Olympic match-fixing scandal which led to the disqualification of eight players on Wednesday, but insisted the sport's future in the Games was secure.
Olympic champion from China, Yu Yang and her new partner Wang Xiaoli, two South Korean pairs, Ha Jung-Eun and Kim Min-Jung, Jung Kyung-Eun and Kim Ha-Na, and Meiliana Jauhari and Greysia Polii of Indonesia were kicked out.
All eight were accused of attempting to manipulate the final standings in the first round group stage of the women's doubles to avoid playing compatriots or to get less difficult opposition in the quarter-finals.
They were found guilty of "not using best efforts to win a match" and "conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport".
"No, I am not embarrassed, I am very very sorry it has happened," said Badminton World Federation (BWF) Thomas Lund.
"The most important thing is that we have dealt with the issues, and done it in the interests of all the players in the tournament.
"There has been a very hard consequence for the eight players but we have 172 players and we must act in the best interests of them all."
The two doubles pairs from South Korea failed to get their disqualification over-turned, the Indonesian pair withdrew their appeal while the Chinese accepted the original decision.
Lund added they will suffer no further punishments, fines or bans, nor will there be any punishments based on allegations that coaches or national associations might have been involved.
Lund said he was confident that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would not take a dim view of the sport, which was first included in the Games relatively recently in 1992.
"We would like not to be evaluated on a single case but on our ability to react," he said.
"No federation will go through the years without problems -- it's the ability to react, and to use the system, and make it fair for all players which is important.
"This is an isolated case and we have dealt with it in an expert way. We hope this is a lesson learned for the players concerned, and that other players will realise that it should not be repeated."
Confronted by an allegation that such match-throwing had been rife within the sport for many years, Lund denied it, saying that the BWF had "closely monitored" matches during the Olympic qualifying system and had seen no evidence of it.
Lund also rejected wholesale criticisms of the round-robin group system, which some coaches and players, notably Olympic men's singles champion Lin Dan, believe has tempted players to try to take advantage of loopholes.
This system which had been used and worked "very well" in the past, Lund claimed although he acknowledged that there would be a review of this particular version of it after the Games.
China's top men's player Lin Dan was stunned by the disqualifications.
"Ultimately the wrong is not with the athletes," he asserted, though he then agreed that what had happened was "not just a loss for the spectators but for the sport itself.
Meanwhile, the BWF will also look at the wording of its regulations.
Angry spectators jeered and booed the players on Tuesday after they appeared to deliberately serve into the net, or hit the shuttlecock long or wide.
Lund exonerated tournament referee Torsten Berg from criticism.
"The last thing we want to happen is to disqualify anyone, when we are dealing with young athletes who have practised for many years and for sure have gone into this tournament doing their best," he said.
"We are so sorry it has come to this. It must have been very difficult for out technical officials, who will always push to get players to their best.
"Everything was done to get the matches finalised in the right way - I have never seen so many black cards (for disqualification) brought out. There were quite a few brought out and threatened and it was extremely unusual."
As a result of the disqualifications, Nina Vislova and Valeria Sorokina of Russia and Canada's Alex Bruce and Michele Li took the place of Wang, Yu, Jung and Kim in the quarter-finals being played later in the day.
Australia's Leanne Choo and Renuga Veeran and Michelle Edwards and Annari Viljoen of South Africa replaced Ha and Kim and Jauhari and Polii.
Earlier another complaint about was made by India, alleging that Japan had thrown a match, but the disciplinary committee rejected the allegation because of a lack of evidence.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eight-disqualified-over-olympic-badminton-fixing-source-132633427.html
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