
The weirdest soccer match and game theory - niyazpk
http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2010/06/16/the-weirdest-soccer-match-and-game-theory/
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viraptor
It seems to be an indicator of when are arbitrary rules more important than
the game itself... If you do things which make you lose in a normal game, just
to satisfy some organisational requirement, it gives an impression that the
rules are either not thought through, or there are too many dependencies that
make the game itself matter less.

In this example - either winning or losing by one goal meant winning, but not
doing anything meant losing... which goes completely against the basic rule of
the game (team scoring more goals wins).

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foulmouthboy
The same sort of thing happens regularly in any sport where any sort of
external outcome is dependent on individual games. The best example is any
league that relies on final standings to determine the next season's draft
order. When the team with the worst record gets to pick first in the following
year's draft, it begins to make little sense for teams close to the bottom of
the standings to win games at all.

