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I don't think there's any objective way to say whether one is worse than the other, so this totally boils down to what parts of the respective scandals annoy any one person the most. That said, I'm not 100% convinced the number of people involved (22 players + some coaches vs 2 players + coaches) contributes either way to badness.

But now that you mention outcome, I'm thinking again from the perspective of the Algerian team rather than the sport itself. They could've been the first African nation to make it out of the group stages of the world cup but were denied it by a third party, whereas I suppose at least in the Badminton case the player had some kind of agency (even if it was unlikely they'd choose not to obey the instruction to throw the game). So I'm coming around to the idea that Austria/Germany was actually worse :D

To add a lukewarm ending to the tale, Algeria eventually managed to make it out of the World Cup group stages in Brazil in 2014. Unfortunately they faced an in-form Germany and lost 2-1 after extra time. Germany would go on to win the competition, completely destroying Brazil 7-1 on the way, so Algeria maybe don't feel so hard done by that time.



I did not see that dimension of it at all; but is interesting now that you point it out.

Thank you for having one of the better arguments/discussions on this site – the ones where, by the end, I'm mostly going "Hmm...".




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