Eight disqualified for manipulating badminton draw

Four women’s doubles pairs have been disqualified from the Olympic badminton competition after deliberately trying to lose matches.

The eight players all conceded points on purpose in their final group matches in an attempt to manipulate the draw for the knockout stage of the London 2012 event at Wembley Arena.

The Chinese top seeds, two pairs from South Korea and another from Indonesia were all effectively found guilty of match-fixing following a disciplinary hearing by the Badminton World Federation.