SPORTS LEGEND: A Thailand player intentionally scored on his own goal to give his team a better match-up in a tournament.

Teams strategically not trying to win games to help get what they feel are better playoff match-ups is not a strange occurrence in the world of sports.

In the late game of the 1999 Pro Basketball season, the Miami Heat were playing the New York Knicks. Both teams had qualified for the NBA Playoffs, and coming into the game, the Heat were the #1 seed and the Knicks were the #8 seed, so they would be playing each other in the first round. The Knicks, however, happened to match up well against the Heat, and in fact had eliminated them from the first round of the playoffs the previous year (when the Knicks were the #7 seed and the Heat the #2 seed). The Knicks entered the night only a game behind the #7 seed, so a victory (and a loss by the team currently at #7) would put the Knicks at #7. The Heat wanted that to happen but the Knicks did not, so both teams ended up resting most of their star players. The Knicks won, but not before they had learned that the #7 seed (who was playing earlier that night) had already won so that the game did not matter. The Heat’s fears came true when the Knicks DID, in fact, eliminate them in the playoffs that season.

So there is something to be said for getting the match-up that you’d prefer to see.

That was the case for Thailand and Indonesia when they faced each other in the Semi-Finals of the 1998 Tiger Cup (a competition between South East Asian teams now called the ASEAN Cup, named after the Association of South East Asian Nations). Whoever won the match would face off against Vietnam, who was the host city that year and had been playing particularly well recently. The loser would get a more favorable match-up against Singapore.

So for most of the game, neither team tried particularly hard to score at all, until the referees began giving out cautions. So both teams scored two goals apiece.

Then, with very little time in the game, Thailand captain Mursyid Effendi (see below for a picture) turned and scored on his own goal, giving Indonesia the victory.

The League was NOT happy at all, and fined both teams $40,000 and Effendi was banned for life from the sport.

In a bit of poetic justice, Thailand lost its match against Singapore (granted, Indonesia lost to Vietnam, as well).

Here are the video “highlights” of the Thailand/Indonesia game…

Thanks to ksalinda for the YouTube clip!

STATUS: True.

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