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In the men’s kabaddi competition at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, Japan crushed South Korea 62-35 in its final group-stage match, seemingly securing a spot in the knockout round. But a rule set by the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) — that goal-difference results against teams with less than 25% of the maximum possible points don’t count — meant Japan’s lopsided win over South Korea wasn’t factored in, and Japan finished the group stage in 4th place. Taiwan, despite losing to India, locked in at least a bronze medal, while Japan missed out on a medal for the first time in 16 years. On 5ch, reactions split between confusion (“why does a rule like this even exist?”) and defense (“it’s a fair rule to stop teams from padding their goal difference by crushing weak opponents”).
On the 24th, the final group-stage matches of men’s kabaddi at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games were held, with Japan, in Group A, thrashing South Korea. It looked like Japan had secured a spot in the knockout tournament, which the top two teams by goal difference advance to — but a rule set by the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF), stating that goal-difference results from matches against teams with less than 25% of the maximum points don’t count, meant the lopsided margin from the South Korea match wasn’t counted, and Japan ultimately finished the group stage in 4th place. A medal — which would have been Japan’s first in 16 years — slipped away. (Digital Desk)
In this year’s group stage, Groups A and B each had five teams playing round-robin, with a win worth 2 league points. Japan faced South Korea that day, seizing momentum early thanks to ace Shoya Suzuki’s offense and defensive plays, winning 62-35 to bring its overall record to 2 wins, 2 losses, and 4 points.
In a later match, Taiwan lost to India, with India advancing in first place on a perfect 4-0 record and 8 points. It looked like the remaining knockout spot would come down to goal difference among Japan, Taiwan, and Bangladesh, all tied at 2 wins, 2 losses, and 4 points. But regardless of how the Taiwan-India match went, it was Taiwan that advanced. Since this year’s tournament has no third-place match, Taiwan was guaranteed at least a bronze medal. Why?
Source: yomiuri.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
It would come down to goal difference, so that would've actually hurt them more
Same goes for soft tennis, honestly — it's barely played outside Asia
You basically have to be a physical freak to play it, right?
This right here is exactly why kabaddi is still stuck in "weird niche sport" territory
What a baffling rule
Happens all the time at soccer World Cups — group-stage advancement coming down to how badly you demolished some garbage-tier team. This rule's meant to stop that.
Isn't it basically just saying that padding your goal difference by running up the score on a scrub opponent is a bit cheap?
Just the goal difference gets voided — the win still counts toward the points
South Korea was just so weak they got written off as not even worth counting
The real embarrassment this time is South Korea, who were such a pathetic scrub they didn't even get counted
That one was a case where they didn't even understand the eligibility rules for competing — worse than just not knowing some obscure scoring rule
The match order ends up mattering way too much, though — it'd be absurd if a team advanced on goal difference just because they happened to crush a team that had already given up
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The “25% rule” behind this elimination is an anti-manipulation safeguard for goal difference used in international tournaments beyond just kabaddi, meant to stop teams from gaming the standings by running up huge scores against extremely weak opponents. The thread largely assumed that “any points scored against a weak team are voided entirely,” but in fact only the goal difference is voided — the league points from the win itself are still added normally (as comment #31 points out), a detail that’s easy to overlook. Combined with reports that the Japan Kabaddi Association itself wasn’t aware of this rule, the confusion here likely reflects the fact that kabaddi is a minor sport that rarely gets detailed rules coverage domestically.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports Breaking News+) thread “[Asian Games] Men’s kabaddi: Japan crushes South Korea, seemingly on track for a medal, but… eliminated after the IKF’s “25% rule” — a regulation even the Japan Kabaddi Association didn’t know about — is applied“.
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