On the afternoon of March 25, the official website of the World Badminton Federation issued an important notice - four male doubles players of the Chinese badminton team He Jiting, Tan Qiang, Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen were suspected of negative matches at the 2018 Fuzhou Open, violating the 3.1.2 regulations of the World Badminton Federation, and the four players will be banned for three months and suspended for two years.
The 2018 Fuzhou Open was held on November 6-11 of that year. In the men's doubles match, He Jiting/Tan Qiang and Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen met in the quarterfinals, and in the end, He Jiting/Tan Qiang defeated their teammates 2-1 to win, the scores were 21-15, 14-21, 21-19.
The BWF statement said they "failed to do their best to win the game".
Li Junhui / Liu Yuchen is a well-known "twin tower" duo, which won the Men's Doubles Title at the World Championships in 2018, helped Guoyu win the Thomas Cup in 2018, was a member of the Sudirman Cup in 2019, and won the men's doubles runner-up at the Tokyo Olympics last year. He Jiting/Tan Qiang were members of last year's Sudirman Cup winners.
The ban penalty took effect on January 25, 2022, and will be enforced from January 25 to April 25, 2024, according to the BWF. Li Junhui has announced his retirement from the army at the end of last year due to injury, and Liu Yuchen is now partnered with Ou Xuanyi. The suspension period means that If He Jiting, Tan Qiang and Liu Yuchen want to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, they must get enough Olympic points by January 25, 2024.
The four players were also asked to return the prize money for the 2018 Fuzhou Open, He Jiting/Tan Qiang $12,250 and Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen $2,187.50.
The BWF added that if the above players do not break the rules within two years, they will be exempt from punishment.
In addition, on November 5 last year, the Chinese Badminton Association announced that male athletes Zhu Junhao and Zhang Binrong violated the BWF's "Anti-Gambling and Manipulation of Match Results Law" in the 2019 international competition, and the BWF has issued a fine: starting from August 13, 2021, the two are banned from participating in all related events and activities for two years.