4064299

When neither team wants to win: A flaw of recent UEFA qualification rules

(Wenn keine der beiden Mannschaften gewinnen will: Ein Fehler der jüngsten UEFA-Qualifikationsregeln)

Tanking, the act of deliberately dropping points or losing a game in order to gain some other advantage, is usually seen as being against the spirit of sports. It can be even more serious if playing a draw is a (weakly) dominant strategy for both teams in a match, since this may lead to collusion. We show that such a situation occurred in a particular football match. As our generalisation reveals, the root of the problem resides in the incentive incompatibility of certain UEFA qualification rules. The governing bodies of major sports should choose strategy-proof tournament designs because of several reasons. First, they may lead to the elimination of a third, innocent team. Second, incentive incompatible rules may discourage both teams from scoring goals, and the players could be interested in improving other match statistics than the number of goals.
© Copyright 2020 International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching. SAGE Publications. Veröffentlicht von SAGE Publications. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Bibliographische Detailangaben
Schlagworte:
Notationen:Spielsportarten Organisationen und Veranstaltungen
Tagging:Fairness Fairplay
Veröffentlicht in:International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: SAGE Publications 2020
Online-Zugang:https://doi.org/10.1177/1747954120921001
Jahrgang:15
Heft:4
Seiten:526-532
Dokumentenarten:Artikel
Level:hoch