Tämän kummallisemmaksi ei meno muutu
Guardianin "The Knowledge":sta kopipeistia
Shell Caribbean Cup match between Barbados and Grenada in 1994.
Going into the last group game, Barbados needed to beat Grenada by two goals to qualify for the final stages. Anything less and Grenada went through. So far, so simple. Except that the organisers had decided that, in the case of extra time, a golden goal would count as two goals.
You don't have to be Einstein to work out what happened next. Barbados raced to a 2-0 lead before Grenada made it 2-1 with seven minutes remaining. The Bajans were heading out unless they scored a goal; any goal.
Fortunately for them, with three minutes left, they did just that - only not in the right net. Their deliberate own goal made it 2-2 and propelled the game towards extra time.
Now, farcically, Grenada needed to score a goal (at either end) to go through. Cue frantic defending of both penalty areas by Barbados until the final whistle.
Such dubious shenanigans were rewarded, however, when Barbados scored the golden goal - this time in Grenada's net - four minutes into extra time to win the match 3-2 (or 4-2 according to the rules of the tournament) and qualify for the finals.
However this isn't the only example of a blatant own-goal being scored to further a team's ambitions. As James Syme points out, it also happened in the infamous 1998 Tiger Cup game between Thailand and Indonesia.
"Whoever won would get to face hot favourites Vietnam in the next round, so both teams tried to throw the match," he says. "At 2-2 and with a few minutes left, the Indonesians dropped all pretence and turned on their own goal, now defended by Thai players.
"In injury time the Indonesian keeper-captain Mursyid Effendi 'saved' the ball, turned round and thumped the ball into his own goal for a 3-2 final result."
Justice was eventually served, however. For not only did Indonesia and Thailand lose their semi-final games (to Singapore and Vietnam, respectively) but both were also fined $40,000 for "violating the spirit of the game." Meanwhile Mursyid Effendi was banned for life.