"Eight female badminton players tossed out of Olympics for trying to lose matches, Badminton World Federation announces."

Email from CNN.

Earlier story here.

IN THE COMMENTS: LoafingOaf asks:

If they have the tournament set up so that it's to a team's advantage to lose a match, what did they expect? 

Answer: more subtlety.

ADDED: "... Sections 4.5 and 4.16 of the Badminton World Federation players' code... stipulate that a player employ 'one's best efforts to win a match' and bans 'conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport.'"

Most paid spectators at Tuesday's badminton women's doubles matches played Potter Stewart, knowing "detrimental" when they saw "detrimental" — as four pairs of players clearly tried to throw matches in order to influence their draws in the tournament's quarterfinals....

"I'm sorry, it's blindly obvious what's going on. It's as if neither player wants to win the match. There's a simple answer: Tell both players, if you don't play properly, you're both thrown out of the tournament," intoned the BBC's announcer at Wembley Arena....

But it is sport. Manipulating the seeding or draws in tournaments has a long tradition in sport...

If the Olympic badminton players could be faulted for anything, it's for not throwing their matches better.

Sending endless serves out of bounds and hitting returns into the net — that's no way to tank. Points must be played above-board, until the critical moment when a shot goes awry. The players should have strained and gasped, and inspected their racquets for holes after misplays.

As I said: more subtlety.