Eight female Olympic badminton players
have been disqualified for deliberately trying
to lose their preliminary-round matches. The players – two from China (the gold medal favourites),
four from Korea and two from Indonesia - lost the rounds on
purpose in order to enter the knockout round with a lower seeding, thereby
avoiding having to compete against a more talented team early in the tournament.
The head coach of South Korea, Sung
Han-kook, admitted his doubles players threw their games, but only after the
Chinese started playing to lose. "The
Chinese started this. They did it first," Reuters quoted Sung as saying.
-
News report
At least one commentator has asked
whether the above is cheating or strategising, pointing out that the Japanese
women’s soccer team was instructed to not score in their final group game
Tuesday against South Africa, which gave them a more favourable match-up in the
next round. Michael Phelps admitted to not swimming his best in the trials to
save energy. Yet officials issued no punishment in these two situations. Whether it is strategy or cheating is a
discussion for another time.
The fact of the players and
coaches seeking to take advantage of the rules by deliberately losing brought
to mind two famous, or more aptly infamous, examples. If they weren’t true one would be forgiven
for thinking that they are episodes from a Monty Python movie.
#1 West Germany v Austria, 1982
FIFA World Cup:
The first part of
the World Cup (football for the purists, soccer for the argumentative) is the
group stage. Each group has four teams that play each other, with three points
for a win, one point for a draw and no points for a loss. The top two teams
advance past the group stage and the bracket continues with single-elimination
games.
These days the 4
teams in the group play simultaneously, so that advancing to the next group
depends not only on a team’s own performance but also on the outcomes of the
other games.
That was not the
case in 1982. At that time matches were
played sequentially, one after the other, so that teams were aware of the
standings of other teams and points needed to advance. In addition, bizarre rules that related to
the number of goals scored also affected the outcomes.
In the last match
of the 1982 FIFA World Cup, Group B, West Germany was to meet Austria. A West German victory by 1 or 2 goals would
result in both teams advancing to the next group. If Germany scored less goals than that, it
was out; any more and Austria was out, with Algeria advancing.
When Germany and
Algeria had met earlier in the group matches.
It had been expected that a German win was a certainty, Germany being
the reigning world champions with a squad containing numerous internationals
and elite players. Algeria, a country
which had never previously been to a World Cup, prohibited its players from
leaving the country before age 28.
The Germans were so
confident of victory that one German player declared at the press conference
before the match that "We will dedicate our seventh goal to our wives, and
the eighth to our dogs.” Another stated
that he would play the game with a cigar in his mouth
In the shock upset
of the Cup, Algeria defeated Germany 2-1.
Against Austria,
Algeria lost 2-0.
In the match
between Germany and Austria, Germany scored after 10 minutes to make the score
1-0.
Horst Hrubesch scores the winning goal for Germany’s 1-0 win over
Austria.
According to a
commentary on that match from The Guardian in 2010:
In the 10th minute
of that match Horst Hrubesch put the Germans in front. Then … nothing happened.
Realising the scoreline suited both of them, Germany and Austria effectively
stopped playing. In the ensuing 80 minutes there were no shots, and barely any
tackles, crosses or sprints. The game was no longer a contest, it was a
conspiracy. The teams' cynicism provoked universal scorn.
A smattering of
Algerian fans in the Gijón crowd burned peseta notes to show their suspicions
of corruption, while most of the Spaniards in attendance waved hankies
throughout the second half in a traditional display of disdain. The next day
newspapers in Spain denounced "El Anschluss" and there was
outrage in Wst Germany and Austria too. Eberhard Stanjek, commentating for the
German channel ARD, almost sobbed during the match as he lamented: "What
is happening here is disgraceful and has nothing to do with
football. You can say what you like, but not every end justifies the
means." The Austrian commentator, meanwhile, told viewers to turn off
their sets and refused to speak for the last half-hour. Former West German
international Willi Schulz branded the German players "gangsters".
The gangsters,
however, were unapologetic. When German fans gathered at the team hotel to
protest, the players responded by throwing water bombs at them from their
balconies.
Even less bothered
was the head of the Austrian delegation, Hans Tschak, who made these
extraordinary comments: "Naturally today's game was played tactically. But
if 10,000 'sons of the desert' here in the stadium want to trigger a scandal
because of this it just goes to show that they have too few schools. Some
sheikh comes out of an oasis, is allowed to get a sniff of World Cup air after
300 years and thinks he's entitled to open his gob."
Did the Algerian
players take offence? Not at all, Merzekane [the Algerian fullback] says.
"We weren't angry, we were cool," he says. "To see two big
powers debasing themselves in order to eliminate us was a tribute to Algeria.
They progressed with dishonour, we went out with our heads held high."
From all over the
world came calls for Fifa to punish the Europeans or stage a replay, but in the
end all the world's governing body did was rule that henceforth the last pair
of games in every group must be played simultaneously. "Our performances
forced Fifa to make that change, and that was even better than a victory,"
Belloumi says. "It meant that Algeria left an indelible mark on football
history."
And the ultimate
winner? Italy defeated West Germany 3-1
in the final.
#2 Barbados v Grenada, 1994 Shall Caribbean Cup:
If the previous
game seemed bizarre and unsportsmanlike, the following item will pale that in
comparison.
The Shell Caribbean
Cup was the football championship of the Caribbean.
The following is a
Wikipedia report on one game in that competition, the surreal 1994 match
between Barbados and Grenada:
Grenada went into
the match with a superior goal difference, meaning that Barbados needed to win
by two goals to progress to the finals. The trouble was caused by two things.
First, unlike most group stages in football competitions, the organizers had
deemed that all games must have a winner. All games drawn over 90 minutes would
go to sudden death extra time. Secondly and most importantly, there was an
unusual rule which stated that in the event of a game going to sudden death
extra time the goal would count double, meaning that the winner would be
awarded a two goal victory.
Barbados was
leading 2-0 until the 83rd minute, when Grenada scored, making it 2-1.
Approaching the dying moments, the Barbadians
realized they had little chance of scoring past Grenada's mass defence in the
time available, so they deliberately scored an own goal to tie the
game at 2-2. This would send the game into extra time and give them another
half hour to break down the defence.
The home goal
scored.
The Grenadians
realised what was happening and attempted to score an own goal as well, which
would put Barbados back in front by one goal and would eliminate Barbados from
the competition.
However, the
Barbados players started defending their opposition's goal to
prevent them from doing this, and during the game's last five minutes, the fans
were treated to the incredible sight of Grenada trying to score in either goal
while Barbados defended both ends of the pitch.
Barbados successfully
held off Grenada for the final five minutes, sending the game into extra time.
In extra time, Barbados notched the game-winner, and, according to the rules,
was awarded a 4-2 victory, which put them through to the next round.
In a press conference after the game,
Grenadian manager James Clarkson said:
"I feel
cheated. The person who came up with these rules must be a candidate for a
madhouse. The game should never be played with so many players running around
the field confused. Our players did not even know which direction to attack:
our goal or their goal. I have never seen this happen before. In football, you
are supposed to score against the opponents to win, not for them"
Ultimately Trinidad
/ Tobago defeated Barbados and went on to defeat Martinique in the final.
The scoring rules
were not used in the Cup after 1994.
