LONDON, Aug 1: Eight badminton players were disqualified from the Olympics on Wednesday after a scandal over “throwing” matches.

Four pairs in the women's doubles competition — one from China, one from Indonesia and two from South Korea — were barred after being hit by disciplinary charges of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) took action.

The BWF confirmed that the eight had been disqualified for trying to lose matches in the round robin phase to manipulate the knockout draw. A last-ditch appeals process was also rejected.

“The appeals committee chairman rejected the cases... the decision of the disciplinary commission stands,” said BWF secretary-general Thomas Lund.

The Chinese were accused of starting the problem by deliberately losing a game on Tuesday night.

This led to other teams behaving in a similar way to try to force an easier quarter-final draw. At one stage both teams appeared to be trying to lose a game. The crowd seemed to catch on, and booed.—Agencies