Can a sport team initiate its own loss?

[Findingnemo]

Yes they can.

But if they do they might be banned from participating in the events or in any event and people who initiated it will be banned forever due to unfair sportsmanship. Do you think anyone will risk their career just because they don't like their coach?

Also it happened in soccer if I am not wrong just because they wanted to have highest goal scored achievement they started doing same side goals and ended up losing their career.

[michellee]

Do what? To initiate or do an intentional loss? But, I think they will also be blamed for this. So this must not be the best idea. If all agrees to dislike a coach, we can just confront the coach and tell other higher people in the club to replace them.

As a coach, yeah that it is important to have a good relationship but even as a player, we need this too. Despite having it, there might still be times that we will have a misunderstanding with each other, so it is important to calm down and don't do major actions yet because you might only regret it.

Public are not psychic to identify the problem on why the team performs like that, especially if there are no possible evidences that they can see but as you said, it seems better to keep an issue like that in private because that can mostly affect the club in a negative way, no matter if which side is correct and incorrect.

They can start make a mistake in the field to show that they don't like their coach. Maybe they will also be blamed for this but they will not care about that because they only want to see their coach fired because he can't manage the team. Many people will also see what happen to the team but the rumors will say many things and makes their fan search for more info. We know that the fan can do many things about the truth so they will soon or later will know that the team doesn't like their coach.

But it is better to communicate with all people involve in teams so they can figure out what they should do. They can critic their coach to fix the thing that they don't like and vice versa. I am sure if they can discuss the problem and search for the way to solve that, everything will gonna clear.

[JoyMarsha]

Teams initiating their match match didn't start today. It's something that has existed for a long that players purposely do just to frustrate the coach's job and get him sacked by the club management.

The fact remains that for a club coach to stay long in a team, depends on the relationship he has with the team players. Treat and respect the opinions of the players accordingly, you have them secure your job for you. But as a coach who chooses to be hardened and brutal toward them, they will all plan to dish out poor performance that will call for your sack by the fans and management of the team. That's as simple as that.

[Strongkored]

It is possible and it is a form of protest or something else that they are trying to achieve.
I know one country that let themselves lose to their opponents in a regional tournament to avoid stronger opponents because the target was to qualify for the finals, that would be the most embarrassing thing, but losing on the orders of the coach and officials so that everyone is exposed and is no longer allowed to be involved in football and the most miserable are the players because they earn a living as footballers and have to lose their careers.

[famososMuertos]

Let's say that losing by default is always difficult to prove, but it happens and quite often, in the case of basketball, they NBA, Magic Johnson said: "We lose because of the coach..." literally, the team was not playing well, and to top it off, he announced that he wanted to go to another team, then the pressure from the losses and the poor play was so much that the coach was fired.

[bakasabo]

The question this topic is dedicated to in full looks like this: can a football team (or a team from another sport) initiate a loss or a series of losses of its own free will in order to achieve some of its goals?

Few years ago we had a topic here about low level league cricket teams cheating game results. Not only one team cheated and were losing games on purpose, but there were several teams in a league, where some players were even simple actors, and based on bets, they «corrected» their performance on the field. Just imagine the size of the cheat, not only one team, player or group of players lose on purpose, but whole league was a partial scam.

I think this is the story about this fake league https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-62123966

[Hirose UK]

Yes, it is very possible and this explanation can be said to be true because we can judge from several incidents that have occurred before with poor performances and series of defeats that may seem unnatural.
If it is about football team, especially regarding players who do not like the coach and play several matches with poor performance, it often happens, players will play as they please and really look different from usual who play very well and comfortably.
I think there are several football teams that experience this and of course this will only provide two choices, first the team must replace the coach who is more appropriate and can adapt to the players or certain players who are not in line with the coach choose to leave the team.
Many answers can be found related to contexts like this, it is undeniable that the in understanding between players and coach can greatly affect the performance of football team.

[Cryptomultiplier]

It is very possible indeed, for a team to initiate some losses to achieve its goal, just as they can also fix matches that they can win so as to also achieve their goals.

There has been several instances like the tale by our OP and am sure that many players can resort to being stubborn just to frustrate the efforts of the coach/manager.

I used to enjoy the style of play by Mario Ballotelli, but when it comes to him being heady and arrogant, he can miss an open goal just because he has personal issues with the team mates or coach and that along with other instances can surely happen if the team players are united in their quest. 

[YOSHIE]

The question this topic is dedicated to in full looks like this: can a football team (or a team from another sport) initiate a loss or a series of losses of its own free will in order to achieve some of its goals?

Very possible, several cases have occurred in the world of soccer.
Example: 1

Barbados vs Grenada
In the 1994 Caribbean Cup, Barbados deliberately scored an own goal to force extra time and take advantage of the golden goal rule. The golden goal rule stated that the first goal scored in extra time would win the match and be worth two goals.

And example: 2

Euro 2024
Several players scored own goals in the tournament, including Italy's Riccardo Calafiori, Germany's Antonio Rüdiger, Austria's Maximilian Wöber, the Czech Republic's Robin Hranáč, and Albania's Klaus Gjasula.

But you need to remember, if the team/player does an own goal on purpose, there is a risk that the team/player will be sanctioned (dismissal), this action is completely illegal, only for certain purposes.

In gambling it can also be done, because they dare to pay high prices to certain teams, so they create goals beyond reason and don't make sense.

[Finestream]

Let's say that losing by default is always difficult to prove, but it happens and quite often, in the case of basketball, they NBA, Magic Johnson said: "We lose because of the coach..." literally, the team was not playing well, and to top it off, he announced that he wanted to go to another team, then the pressure from the losses and the poor play was so much that the coach was fired.

You'll never hear an NBA player or commentator publicly admit that they lost on purpose. It's something we can only see or speculate about. So, to answer OP's question, it all comes down to our speculation since nothing can prove a team intentionally loses a game, even if it’s a coach’s decision to do so. They would never say it openly, as that would damage the team's reputation and the league itself.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

The question this topic is dedicated to in full looks like this: can a football team (or a team from another sport) initiate a loss or a series of losses of its own free will in order to achieve some of its goals?
In one book about sports betting, I read an interesting case about an English football team. I will not mention its name, since not everyone agrees that this is exactly how it happened. As the author of the book wrote about it. In short, the matter was that the players of the football team did not like its coach and they really wanted to change this coach. But since they did not have the legal right to do such things, they resorted to a cunning tactic. They deliberately began to lose one match after another in order to change the coach and thus ruin his reputation. Do you believe in this version of events?
The second case happened with one regional Russian team, whose funding was sharply reduced. In protest or simply because there was no point in playing better (according to some authors), this team also began to deliberately lose matches with equal teams.
Do you think this is the right explanation?
Do you think it is possible for a team in modern football to want to initiate a loss of their own free will? I mean by their own free will, not by the will of a coach or match-fixing agents from outside.

Well, it's absolutely and very possible, this sort of things or stories you mentioned are not new to many of us who are fervent in sports and in reading news related to sports.

A team or a club, for what ever be their selfish reason can deliberately allow themselves to be beaten in a sports match. By now, it should already be known to all of us that winning the opponent in a sports games involves team work, this means that no one can do it alone, that is; win for his team or club. So, it is possible for the same team to agree within themselves to lose a match for what ever reason.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

A goalkeeper can intentionally miss a goal, and other players can generally play below their abilities, but they still have to pretend to play hard. Many users have written here that when a team starts to intentionally play poorly, it can have a negative impact on the careers of the players on the team itself. This is partly true, but I still think that this is a big exaggeration. After all, for example, in order to lose a game, a goalkeeper does not need to miss a lot of goals. It is enough to miss 1-2 goals and often this is enough. I do not think that the statistics and career of the goalkeeper will suffer much from this. After all, he often misses 1-2 goals for "natural" reasons. And it can be very difficult to understand the reasons for which the goalkeeper missed goals without serious evidence.

You are right, @Julien_Olynpic, the only way that poor performance can only be said to have or cause any harm to the career of the player is if bad record for so many failed matches due to their poor performance and it is not possible that a sport team would always want to lose in so many matches, it can only be on a very few match which they can even play very well but can just purposely make some common mistakes that will cause them to lose but no one else would even see the mistake as a fault from the player.

[Dewi Aries]

Of course, I think it is a very possible event in a sports team when all the players in one team do not like the rules in management or do not like their coach for some reason. It is also possible that without us knowing and without us realizing that there are several teams in several major leagues that do the same thing, meaning that there is a possibility that the decline in performance experienced by a team does not occur naturally but rather occurs intentionally with certain reasons and goals.

On the other hand, to be honest, I just found out about a scenario like this, but it is indeed quite reasonable to happen, and on the other hand, indirectly, of course, this can also be one of the learning materials for a coach or management not to make unilateral decisions, in the sense of being open to accepting all voices from the players, because of course it will be very detrimental to the club that has spent a lot of money to buy players but the team's performance is getting worse just because of such an incident.

[DiMarxist]

At first I wanted to disagree with you but from your story and I compared it with political wizardry in which a political party withdraw from contesting because they don't like the candidate anymore in a day to the election so it is possible for a football team to play against themselves and lose the game. And that is why when football team mates are in good term they do well but if their are differences it also affects the Players in the field.
When the coach is friendly with them then they will also do their best.

[Tmoonz]

The question this topic is dedicated to in full looks like this: can a football team (or a team from another sport) initiate a loss or a series of losses of its own free will in order to achieve some of its goals?
In one book about sports betting, I read an interesting case about an English football team. I will not mention its name, since not everyone agrees that this is exactly how it happened. As the author of the book wrote about it. In short, the matter was that the players of the football team did not like its coach and they really wanted to change this coach. But since they did not have the legal right to do such things, they resorted to a cunning tactic. They deliberately began to lose one match after another in order to change the coach and thus ruin his reputation. Do you believe in this version of events?
The second case happened with one regional Russian team, whose funding was sharply reduced. In protest or simply because there was no point in playing better (according to some authors), this team also began to deliberately lose matches with equal teams.
Do you think this is the right explanation?
Do you think it is possible for a team in modern football to want to initiate a loss of their own free will? I mean by their own free will, not by the will of a coach or match-fixing agents from outside.

It is possible if their is no mutual understanding between the coach and the players definitely such sinerio can apparently be possible, it takes to tangle and two can not or never work together except they agree, there is power in number, if the majority of the players happens to take side based on this regards, yes such thing can happen in order to disrupt or damage the career of the coach and possibly get him of the road, being a coach comes with lots of responsibilities which includes ensuring certain level of mutual understanding between him and the players. Personal, when a Player is not a good term with the coach it affects the player overall performance.

[peter0425]

Do you think it is possible for a team in modern football to want to initiate a loss of their own free will? I mean by their own free will, not by the will of a coach or match-fixing agents from outside.

It could happen if your explanation is to go by but I do not think it will be so common. They are also playing with their reputation here. Some of the players may even disagree with doing so considering where they are in the points of their careers. This seems so childish to me though. Surely there are better ways to express their opinion about the coach. If the coach is bad, they probably would not need to initiate losses themselves as they will just lose for real due to lack of skills from the coach and trust from the players.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

At first I wanted to disagree with you but from your story and I compared it with political wizardry in which a political party withdraw from contesting because they don't like the candidate anymore in a day to the election so it is possible for a football team to play against themselves and lose the game. And that is why when football team mates are in good term they do well but if their are differences it also affects the Players in the field.
When the coach is friendly with them then they will also do their best.

Yeah, exactly like what I mentioned above in my comment that winning in a football game is not a one man thing, the players have to play together in one accord and have exactly the same vision, which is to win that match, this will help them play better and even be more serious with their individual self  to see that their vision is accomplished.

And as for the coach, a good coach will know how to always be in good terms with his players, regardless of their different attitudes and so on, and this is because, he's performance as a coach is largely in the hands of his players, without the players doing well or when the players are not doing well in the field of play, the coach is always the person who take the blame.

So, such tendecies in players to want to play against themselves and lose a match can be avoid if a coach will know how to be good to his players, except on occasions where the their loss is one that has been arranged from the top, then it will as well be an agreement between the team as well..

[uswa56]

Do you think it is possible for a team in modern football to want to initiate a loss of their own free will? I mean by their own free will, not by the will of a coach or match-fixing agents from outside.

It could happen if your explanation is to go by but I do not think it will be so common. They are also playing with their reputation here. Some of the players may even disagree with doing so considering where they are in the points of their careers. This seems so childish to me though. Surely there are better ways to express their opinion about the coach. If the coach is bad, they probably would not need to initiate losses themselves as they will just lose for real due to lack of skills from the coach and trust from the players.

You're right, if a team continues to start their own defeats then it will certainly make their own career look bad because their team always loses and what you say is very accurate it is very childish, if they don't like the coach anymore they can certainly find another way to convey and don't let their behavior have a bad impact on themselves,  In a team, you must have mutual trust in order to get good results and if you don't trust each other, of course they will not be able to have a good performance in every match they play.

[DaNNy001]

The question this topic is dedicated to in full looks like this: can a football team (or a team from another sport) initiate a loss or a series of losses of its own free will in order to achieve some of its goals?

Well I don't know if this actually suits what you are asking but I have a case scenario of a friend who does play as a goal keeper for a local clubside in my country with the name bayelsa united in our Nigerian local league and he confide in me how he actually begged and asked him team mate's to help him out with a particular game in which he actually bet on his own team to lose although it wasn't a single bet as it was a parley selection which came down to this particular match of theirs as his last game and the amount to win was actually a handsome figure, long story short they master minded everything and professionally lost the game and he won his ticket and also split a portion to some of his teammates.

[Abbatty]

It happens alot, it football I know about because it the sport I watch most of the time, I'm a Chelsea fan this has happened to my football club. There was this time Chelsea signed in Felipe Scolari and he was not a fan of Didier Drogba he preferred Anelka and drogba was not playing at that time, he wasn't happy and being the main man at the club, his absence affect other players and Chelsea began to play badly and started loosing matches. We all know how influential drogba was during his days at Chelsea so coming in and putting him on the bench was never a good thing to do. If he doesn't fit into your style of play then you build a style he can fit in. After the whole saga Felipe Scolari had to leave because the team was playing badly and losing matches. So he was later sacked and drogba came in back to the squad and Chelsea get back to winning ways and drogba of remain the star of the show.