体坛英语资讯：New rules to be introduced for Thomas, Uber Cup

BEIJING, Sept. 13 -- The Badminton World Federation (BWF) is set to introduce new rules for the Thomas and Uber Cup to prevent further controversies after South Korea threw matches at this year's tournament. The showpiece event in Jakarta in May was overshadowed when South Korean team manager Kim Jong-Soo said their tactics in the Thomas Cup were to avoid winning their group.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) is set to introduce new rules for the Thomas and Uber Cup to prevent further controversies after South Korea threw matches at this year's tournament.

The reason, he said, was to give them a more favorable quarterfinal draw. They duly lost to England and Malaysia, fielding weakened teams. Currently, the tournament is structured so the top finisher in each three-team group receives a bye to the quarterfinals, while the other two play an elimination game to make the last eight.

The BWF acknowledged the controversy marred the reputation of the sport's premier team event and that tanking cheated spectators.

BWF secretary general Stuart Borrie told Malaysia's Star newspaper on Friday that they planned to close the loophole in the rules.

"We cannot blame the coaches or the team managers. There was a set of rules and the teams merely saw the opportunity of making the best use of them," he said.

"The BWF and their members want this to be reviewed. We are looking at having a draw process halfway through the finals to ensure that teams do not get the chance to deliberately lose their ties."

Borrie added that it was important for the finals to justify their status as the championships that brought out the best in teams.

"We are also concerned that England did not have their best team for the last finals as they wanted to focus on the Beijing Olympics," he said.

"The Thomas-Uber Cup finals should be the stage for a team to showcase their best. All these will be looked into at the next executive meeting (in Lausanne next month)."