Li Yongbo denies role in match-throwing

China’s head coach Li Yongbo had remained silent since the BWF’s decision to disqualify his best pair of women’s doubles in the recent Olympic Games. After the recent clean sweep in the China Masters held in Changzhou, Li gave an interview which was aired on China National Television, where he apparently denied any part in the match-throwing, saying he “did not draw up the tactics“, according to the translated quote in China Daily.

“We were just taking advantage of the rules and were not thinking about other stuff too much. It was a bad show, but there has never been a standard…It was a hasty decision by the World Badminton Federation [sic]. They never punished any player who had similar behavior in the past decade,” he was quoted by China Daily.

Chinese women’s doubles shuttlers Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang were both disqualified for throwing their round-robin match against Korea’s Kim Ha Na and Jung Kyung Eun, who were also disqualified in the same ruling, along with two other pairs.  Beijing Olympic gold medallist Yu Yang made a much-publicized retirement announcement on her blog, but she and Wang have since been entered in two international tournaments, though neither have yet played outside of China since the Olympics.  The national badminton associations of both Korea and Indonesia have meted out further punishment on their players – as well as coaches in the Korean case – but so far no such announcement has come from the Chinese camp.

Click here to read the report in the China Daily