KUALA LUMPUR: The sport’s governing body announced Friday that four Chinese badminton players were fined for breaking anti-corruption regulations by failing to give it their all in a doubles competition.

Three-month bans were imposed on He Ji Ting, Tan Qiang, Li Jun Hui, and Liu Yu Chen, however the sanctions were suspended for two years, according to the Badminton World Federation.

The bans will take effect if there are any repeat offences within two years.

When Li and Liu faced He and Tan in the quarterfinals of the men’s doubles at the Fuzhou China Open in 2018, they broke the rules.

Another player who was watching the game alerted officials to the fact that the doubles couples were not putting forth their best effort to win the match.

The officials urged the players to put forth more effort during a break in the game. Their performances improved dramatically after that, and He and Tan went on to beat their higher-ranked opponents.

Badminton officials filed a complaint, and after a protracted investigation, a panel determined that the players had violated anti-corruption regulations by failing to utilise their best efforts to win a match.

Due to a lack of evidence, two more accusations were rejected, including that they attempted to rig the outcome of the match.

All of the charges had been refuted by the players.

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