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[Ozwhites]

My twopence worth on it (Cup run) ............ Oz.
The process of giving up/not performing (tanking) by a professional team in order to enhance or protect its position presents many interesting ethical questions for me as a fan.

1. Giving up (tanking) basically for me means a situation where a professional team intentionally does not use its best available players in a contest.

2. I am not saying that the players who actually participate in the game(s) give less than their best efforts BUT I am saying that if Management/Coaches make a decision that they will use relatively inferior players in a game (even though better players are available) - even though that course of action is more likely to result in a loss THAT for me is NOT acceptable with my ethic of how I play sport or watch a sport.

3. The 'old chestnuts' used via comments expressed of ..........'looking to see what we have for the future' OR 'wanting to make sure that we don’t aggravate any more injuries' when it's crystal clear to me that the team in question has given up on the game and wants to position itself more favourably for another possibly more lucrative game.

4. Fundamentally for me,IMO, this raises the question as to who will win when two teams vying for a 'favourable position' play one another ?

5. Personally for me,I would not want to represent a team with players in it not wanting/expecting to win at such costs as its unethical sporting behaviour.

6. Sport aptly demonstrates that 'many' of us including owners,coaches, players and fans are prepared to leave our ethics at the door when we enter the domain of professional sports - at least in valued terms of our expectations for teams 'putting in a shift' and giving 100% genuine effort to win every game. Would we accept a Primary school or High school or a College team setting itself up to lose ?

I doubt it !
So why would we accept it at the professional levels then.Maybe it’s because of the personal 'feel good factor' or are we just being conned by visions of a better prosperous financial viability in the future.

7. I and many of you participated in sports as kids (even as adults) and we were always taught that it is essential to maximize our effort in every game........ to win.

So I find it ironic that at the professional level where it’s supposed to be clear what is exactly expected to win that we are now okay with a go out and lose mentality.

Perhaps changing the rules of the FA Cup (in our case) or in general to all professional sports so that to reduce the reward for failure would result in a more ethical approach to the spirit of competition could well be the answer if you view the rewards for 'just turning up to compete' that I posted on the FA Cup thread.

Rant over Oz - trouble was/is I've got three brothers so I always had to compete with them to show 'em I was worthy to fell-run with them,cycle cross with them,box with them and row boats with them and that meant NO quarters given ever ............ a situation that still applies today - family eh.

I'm not sure how you deciphered from my response that we shouldn't try to win??? Simply pointing out...like others...that we put anything other than our top side out there. Play basically youngsters in U23 and they can try to win the game as much as they possibly can. That ain't tanking.... If they lose, no sleep loss...and no further injuries to key players in promotional bid. And if we are criticised by the ruling body for this course of action, then we'll be in good company of probably 3/4s of the participants! And no ethical issue. All sporting clubs have priorities...and reListic use of players to achieve goals.