AT the risk of being disqualified from this column, I’m not going to write much today and leave myself with a much easier column to compile tomorrow.

Only kidding of course. Besides, anyone who has stuck with me for the last few days will already know that content, quality and forward planning have long since gone out of the window.

How we all rejoiced when the eight women at the centre of the match-fixing scandal that briefly propelled badminton into the limelight over the last few days were expelled from the Olympics yesterday. The charge against them was “trying their hardest not to win” which is just about as un-Olympic as it comes.

Aside from my first thought, which is Baron de Coubertin spinning in his grave, it seems to me that the whole sorry mess had been predicted long before the event began.

The powers that be – in this case the Badminton World Federation – had for some reason decided to shift from a straight knockout to a competition with group stages, knowing that in some cases, certain countries had two different pairings in the doubles and could conceivably steer their results to maximise medal chances in the later rounds. It’s not rocket science, as a certain Glaswegian often says to me down the road at the Reebok.

And for that reason they should be held as equally culpable as the eight women for the headlines the issue has generated. The athletes were playing the system, sure, but the system allowed itself to be played.

Last, and by no means least, it was good to see us Brits finally get among the golds, if only to stop BBC’s Gabby Logan, Gary Lineker et al consistently reassuring us, the viewer, and themselves, the multi-million pound investor, that it would happen eventually. You can rest easy now guys.

Plus, Bradley Wiggins is probably the coolest cyclist that ever lived (sorry Jason Kenny) – and an absolute shoo in for the Sports Personality of the Year.

I’m not sure when cycling became cool, but if a British fella can win gold a week or so after the Tour de France and combat the wind-resistance from those sideburns, then it must inspire a few of us to dust down the old 10-speed and give it a go.