Badminton to hand down lifetime bans for match-fixing

Badminton bosses have brought in lifetime bans for match-fixers and illegal gamblers as part of a new charter announced on Thursday which gives the body greater scope to root out corruption.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) also made it an offence not to report knowledge of illegal betting or failure to cooperate with BWF investigations as it bids to avoid the plight of tennis, which has been rocked by match-fixing allegations.

"BWF is committed to clean sport and this code is for everyone in badminton," BWF Secretary General Thomas Lund said in a statement. "It covers almost all people associated with our sport and addresses circumstances that have come about with the evolution of badminton. We can demand interviews with anyone in the sport as well as ask those who are alleged to have committed offences to hand over items such as mobile phones, laptops, telephone records."

Badminton was hit by a match-fixing scandal at the 2012 London Olympics when eight players, from China, South Korea and Indonesia, were kicked out of the women's doubles tournament for deliberately trying to lose matches.

Lund said the new code, which covers players and their entourages, event staff, referees and volunteers, had been under review since 2010 and follows a tightening of anti-doping rules in January.

"The integrity of our sport is clearly a critical area which we take very seriously," the Dane said.