Four badminton teams were kicked out of the women's doubles at the London Olympic Games on Wednesday for trying to lose on purpose to secure a more favorable draw later in the tournament.

The eight doubles players from China, South Korea and Indonesia were cited by the Badminton World Federation for “not using one's best efforts to win a match” and “conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport.”

"We applaud the federation for having taken swift and decisive action," IOC spokesman Mark Adams told the Associated Press. "Such behavior is incompatible with the Olympic values."

China had accepted the federation's earlier decision. South Korea and Indonesia appealed the disqualification, but the BWF rejected the South Korean appeal and the Indonesia challenge was withdrawn.

China's players involved in Tuesday's matches were world champions Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang. During Tuesday’s game, spectators at the arena booed their performance after it became clear they were deliberately trying to lose.

Yu, who won doubles gold at the 2008 Beijing Games with partner Du Jing, told Chinese media that she and Wang conserved their strength for the later stages.

"We are just injured. We just used the tournament system to ease off so that we can have more energy for the knockout rounds. ” Yu was quoted as saying. Yu said she will retire after the London Games.

Wang said, “Why do they let us pay the price for the imperfect tournament system? Why? They are not just cancelling one game! They are cancelling my dream!”

But the Chinese sports delegation said it fully respects the decision made by the BWF, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Xinhua said after the delegation's leadership learnt about it, they immediately tasked the relevant people with an investigation.

China "opposes any behavior or acts which contravene this spirit or sports morality for any reason or in any form", the report added.

Liu Fengyan, head of ping pong and badminton center of China’s General Administration of Sport, said on Wednesday that he on behalf of the center and Chinese Badminton Association apologized to Chinese people and will accept any criticism and punishments.

Liu also said Yu and Wang should be criticized severely for their misconducts of striking at the heart of Olympic competition.

AP gave some background about the tournament system and why and how the players utilized it.

Teams blamed the introduction of a round-robin stage rather than a straight knockout tournament as the main cause of the problem. The round-robin format can allow results to be manipulated to earn an easier matchup in the knockout round.

The Chinese players tried to rig the draw after its second-seeded pair unexpectedly lost to a Danish team in the morning. That placed the No. 2 pair on course for a semifinal meeting with Wang and Yu, instead of the final.

Wang and Yu then deliberately set out to lose so they would go into the bottom half of the draw. They hardly exerted themselves, and neither did the South Koreans, drawing jeers of derision from the crowd and warnings from the umpire and tournament referee Torsten Berg. Wang and Yu eventually got what they wanted by losing.

South Korea head coach Sung Han-kook said his two pairings’ throwing their matches was in retaliation against the Chinese team who instigated the situation.

"The Chinese started this. They did it first," Sung was quoted by Reuters as saying. "It's a complicated thing with the draws. They didn't want to meet each other in the semi-final. So we did the same. We didn't want to play the South Korean team again (in the knockout stages)."