Sport is littered with examples of players not trying their best at times in order to win. Swimmers and runners pace themselves. Tennis stars throw sets when they are down in order to save energy. Teams in tournaments know that where they finish in early rounds determines who they face later on. The truth is that fans often watch sportsmen deliberately underperforming.

Hence the disgust over four badminton teams “not using one’s best efforts to win” at the Olympics is doltish and inconsistent. And the issue extends well beyond sport. If the Chinese, South Korean and Indonesian teams were companies, for example, they would be applauded for eschewing short-term gains to deliver longer-term results. Last week, the Kay Review found that “short-termism is an underlying problem in UK equity markets”.

But shareholders, like spectators, are also prone to inconsistency and confusion. Chief executives are often judged on quarterly performance. Investors generally lack patience. Facebook, say, is being sold off in part because of the heavy capital expenditure necessary to build a sustainable business – its capex-to-sales ratio last quarter was 35 per cent. Mark Zuckerberg could easily slash that to boost short-term profits.