London 2012 Badminton Match Fixing: 'China Control Everything. They Do What They Want'

The news that eight badminton players have been disqualified from the London 2012 Olympics for match-fixing has led to number of former players and officials commenting on the bold decision of the Badminton World Federation.

While many had called for a disqualification, it still came as a major shock and shows just how far the federation was willing to go in order to uphold the meaning of the Olympic Games.

Former British badminton star Gail Emms was commentating on the matches yesterday and was quick to call for all of the players involved to be removed from the event as she believed it was not in keeping with the Olympic spirit.

"If badminton wants to save face I personally feel they should disqualify the four pairs and re-instate the pairs who came third and fourth in the group and then have a better competition," stated Emms.

"You cannot do this in an Olympic Games, this is something that is not acceptable and it just makes not only our sport but the organisers and the poor crowd who had to watch, who pay good money to watch two matches ... It was just disgraceful, absolutely disgraceful. I would disqualify them."

A furious Bulgarian badminton star added: "China control everything. They do what they want."

Despite calling for the players to be banned, even Emms was surprised when she heard the verdict on Wednesday afternoon.

"Confirmed!! All 4 pairs involved in WD matches last night have been DISQUALIFIED!! Never thought it would actually happen!!" Emms declared on Twitter.

The former doubles partner of Emms, Nathan Robertson, was another to reveal his surprise at the announcement, but was quick to praise the decision.

"I'm amazed by this decision but happy our world federation has taken action, will they now be stronger in the future against the Chinese??" Robertson put on Twitter.

The CEO of Badminton England Adrian Christy was also quoted on Twitter as he felt the decision had helped maintained the integrity of the sport.

"Pleased the BWF have acted quickly & decisively over this situation & shown strong leadership," said Christy. "This is an incident that could have been potentially damaging to reputation & integrity of our game."

There were suggestions that the round-robin format was to blame as it tempted players into losing their final game in order to try and make sure of an easier draw and France coach Fabrice Vallet revealed that the point had been raised to the organisers.

"By deciding to organise the tournament with a group section, when you had two doubles pairs of certain countries, it was obvious something like this would happen. It happened," he told the BBC.

"During the team managers' meeting I think the Australian team manager asked the question about the situation. He was asking for all the matches to be played at the same time to avoid this type of thing."

London 2012 chairman Lord Sebastian Coe was at the badminton event on Tuesday will have been pleased with the decision, after admitting that he felt the whole situation was 'unacceptable'.

"It was depressing, who wants to sit through something like that? The sadness of it is I was actually at the badminton yesterday and I saw a British competitor narrowly fail to progress. I know the [Badminton World Federation] really well and they will take that really seriously. It is unacceptable."

Finally there was yet further praise of the decision to reinstate the sides who had previously been eliminated with Robertson now hoping that the sport could move past the controversy of the last two days.

"Great news, the 4 other pairs from the dq'd groups are now in the draw. From Russia, Australia, Canada and South Africa. Game on..."