EURO TEAM CHAMPS 2016 – Former pre-made draw fiasco haunts Kazan

The European Men and Women Team Championships are about to kick off in Kazan, Russia, on Tuesday, with the group matches to start off in the morning. Yet the pre-draw which was made for the teams who will top their groups – or become best seconds – raise some questions amongst the players who are in Kazan. With some problems that had occurred in the past when pre-draws had been made before group stages took place.

Let’s go back in time, for the Thomas Cup itself, in 2008. At the time, the group stage was placing teams in a group ranking, and a pre-set draw for the knock-out stage. This led to Korean strategists to field their men’s singles to play doubles, and vice versa, in order to finish third in Group B (they lost 1-4 to both England and Malaysia) and avoid both China and Indonesia in early rounds of the knock-out stage. This fate could repeat itself this week as teams losing the first spot in the group (and qualify as best seconds) would then avoid some teams. Russia, for instance could benefit losing the top spot of group 5 if it means avoiding Denmark, the top seed, an instead, finishing runner-up or second best runner-up to face either winner of group 3 (possibly Germany) or winner of group 4 (possibly France) – an easier draw on paper.

This would lead to what has been on tried to been avoided since the 2008 fiasco – in the Thomas Cup but also later on during the London Olympics when 4 women’s doubles pairs were disqualified for not playing their best.

Some players have expressed concerned and even asked the Athletes’ Commission to look into it and apparently, some meetings were being held in Kazan to try to avoid falling into the same “play to lose” pattern, which would not be the best of signs a few months before the Olympic Games.

Click the following links to see the pre-set knock-out round draws for the Men’s Team and Women’s Team events