An Indonesian second-tier game descended into farce on Sunday as both sides scored five own goals between them in an attempt to lose the match, thereby avoiding the side regarded as the strongest in the competition.
The match, a 3-2 victory for PSS Sleman's over PSIS Semarang was played behind closed doors due to recent fan violence, but footage has emerged which shows the goalkeepers making no effort to prevent the own goals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOA4sB944-w
Both teams were apparently trying to avoid playing Pusamania Borneo, who are alleged to receive backing from the Indonesian mafia.
The second level of Indonesian football consists of an eastern group and a western group. To determine the semifinalists, the top four teams from East and West advance to a final group stage consisting of two groups of four. Both teams knew that by topping their regional group, they would be drawn in the same final group as Pusamania.
This is not the first time an Indonesian side has blatantly attempted to lose a game. In 1998, the country's national team scored an intentional own goal in a Tiger Cup game against Thailand to avoid having to play Vietnam in the next round of the competition. The goalscorer, Mursyid Effendi, was subsequently banned for life by FIFA.
The debacle also bears some similarity to an even stranger game we've mentioned before - a 1994 Caribbean Cup qualifier between Grenada and Barbados. A tournament rule stated that group games would go to sudden-death extra time if the scores were level after 90 minutes. Bizarrely, the golden goal would count double, affording the winners a two-goal victory in goal difference terms. In short, towards the end of normal time Barbados were defending the Grenadian goal as well as their own, because the Spice Boys could score in either net to take the game into extra time. Read a more comprehensive explanation here.
[via 101greatgoals]
