Second Olympics ‘fix’ as Japanese football team told to draw

A SECOND Olympics match-fix scandal emerged today when the Japanese football coach admitted ordering his team not to win.

Norio Sasaki told his female players to play for a draw against South Africa to ensure they stayed at their Cardiff base.

Had they won Tuesday’s game - which ended 0-0 - they would have been forced to travel 350 miles to Glasgow to play France.

Instead, they will stay in Wales to play Brazil, while Sweden will now have to compete in Scotland.

The admission came as eight female badminton players were ejected from left the Olympic village in London.

The Chinese, Indonesians and South Koreans were disqualified for trying to lose matches to rig “easier’ games in later rounds.

Sasaki said: “It was a different way of playing compared to the usual game, but the players were on the same page as me.

“I feel sorry we couldn’t show a respectable game, but it’s my responsibility, not the players’, why the game was like that. It was important for us not to move to Glasgow.”

US women’s soccer coach Pia Sundhage suggested the Japanese had not “respected“ the game and asked if she would ever apply those tactics replied: “Absolutely not!”

However, world footballing body FIFA claimed there was “insufficient” evidence to start disciplinary proceedings for unlawfully influencing a result.

And Games organising committee spokesman Mark Adams said: “There’s not enough evidence the athletes acted on what the coach said.”