Moving the goalposts#As logical fallacy
{{short description|Metaphor originating from goal sports}}
Moving the goalposts (or shifting the goalposts) is a metaphor, derived from goal-based sports such as football and hockey, that means to change the rule or criterion ("goal") of a process or competition while it is still in progress, in such a way that the new goal offers one side an advantage or disadvantage.{{cite web|url=http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/251400.html |title=Moving the goalposts |publisher=Phrases.org.uk |access-date=2011-12-20}}
Etymology
{{wikt|move the goalposts|shift the goalposts}}
This phrase is British in origin and derives from sports that use goalposts.{{Cite Merriam-Webster|move/shift the goalposts}}{{cite news|last=Safire |first=William |title=On Language; Moving the Goalposts |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/28/magazine/on-language-moving-the-goalposts.html|access-date=1 February 2017 |work=The New York Times |date=28 October 1990}} The figurative use alludes to the perceived unfairness in changing the goal one is trying to achieve after the process one is engaged in (such as a game of football) has already started.
Logical fallacy
Moving the goalposts is an informal fallacy in which evidence presented in response to a specific claim is dismissed and some other (often greater) evidence is demanded. That is, after an attempt has been made to score a goal, the goalposts are moved to exclude the attempt.{{cite book|last1=Clark |first1=Jef |last2=Clark |first2=Theo |title=Humbug! The Skeptic's Field Guide to Spotting Fallacies in Thinking |date=2005 |isbn=0-646-44477-8 |page=101|publisher=Theo Clark }} The problem with changing the rules of the game is that the meaning of the result is changed, too.{{cite news|last=Hobbs |first=Jeremy |title=Moving the Goal Posts |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/opinion/moving-the-goal-posts.html |work=The New York Times |date=November 21, 2011 |access-date=February 19, 2013}}
Use
Some include this metaphor as description of the tactics of harassment. In such cases, a re-defining of another's goals may in reality be intentionally devised so as to assure that an athlete, for example, will ultimately never be able to finally achieve the ever shifting goals.Royal College of Psychiatrists, [http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/PDF/On%20bullying%20and%20harassment.pdf "On Bullying and Harassment"] retrieved 2012-2-19. In workplace bullying, shifting the goalposts is a conventional tactic in the process of humiliation.Field, Tim. (1995). [https://books.google.com/books?id=9T9mn72jffkC&dq=bullying+and+shifting+the+goal+posts&pg=PA60 Bully in Sight: How to Predict, Resist, Challenge and Combat Workplace Bullying, p. 60].
Karl Popper coined the concept conventionalist twist or conventionalist stratagem in Conjectures and Refutations with similar use as this fallacy but in the context of the falsifiability of certain scientific theories.{{cite web |last1=Popper |first1=Karl |title=Conjectures and Refutations |url=https://archive.org/details/karl-popper-conjectures-and-refutations-the-growth-of-scientific-knowledge/page/n287/mode/2up |website=Internet Archive |date=1967 |access-date=29 September 2024}}
Non-metaphorical use <span class="anchor" id="In sports"></span>
File:Yasin Ehliz and David Leggio by 2eight DSC0583.jpg (in goal at right) regularly moved his goalposts as a strategy to stop play until the tactic was outlawed.]]
Deliberately moving the goalposts constitutes a professional foul in rugby football and an unfair act in gridiron football. The officials are granted carte blanche to assess whatever penalty they see fit, including awarding the score for any attempt at a goal missed or invalidating any goal scored as a result of the moved goalposts. In both rugby and gridiron, goalposts are anchored into the ground; the distance they can be moved (most easily in gridiron by pulling down on one end of the crossbar to tilt both posts either to the left or the right) is far more restricted.{{Citation needed|date=July 2018}} Inadvertently moving the goalposts in a touchdown celebration is an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty of 15 yards against the offending team.
Moving goalposts is common in ice hockey, where physical contact with the posts is common. If the goalposts are knocked off their moorings in the course of play, play is stopped until the goal is put back in place. If the goalposts are deliberately moved to stop an opponent from scoring, the opponent may be granted a penalty shot; if the goaltender does so, the goaltender may be ejected from the game, a rule imposed at most levels of the game in 2014 after David Leggio deliberately moved the goalposts during a two-person breakaway, believing he would have a better chance of stopping a penalty shot.Dhiren Mahiban (November 6, 2014). [http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2014/11/06/report-ahl-changes-rule-following-leggio-incident/ Report: AHL changes rule following Leggio incident]. ProHockeyTalk.com. Retrieved November 7, 2014.{{cite web|date=2014-11-02|title=Video:AHL goalie Leggio intentionally dislodges net|url=http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/eye-on-hockey/24782337/video-ahl-goalie-david-leggio-intentionally-dislodges-net-to-stop-2-on-0|access-date=2014-11-02|work=CBS Sports}} Leggio later used the tactic in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, where he had played since 2015; that league had not yet outlawed the maneuver,{{cite news|date=2017-12-09|title=David Leggio is up to his old tricks|work=Sporting News|url=http://www.sportingnews.com/nhl/news/david-leggio-net-breakaway-video-olympics-2018-pyeongchang-del-germany/1ra12y0h7954f1u6vxlfaposd3|access-date=2017-12-10 |last=Schlager |first=Brandon }} but promptly did so after Leggio's first attempt at using the tactic.{{cite web|last1=Leahy|first1=Sarah|date=13 December 2017|title=Another league changes its rules, thanks to David Leggio|url=http://nhl.nbcsports.com/2017/12/13/another-league-changes-its-rules-thanks-to-david-leggio/|access-date=13 December 2017|website=NBC Sports }} The DEL instead automatically awards the goal to the opposing team. The National Hockey League approved this rule in 2019.{{Cite web |title=Gary Bettman announces new rules for next season|url=https://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/2019/6/20/18694572/nhl-gary-bettman-announces-new-rules-for-next-season-video-review-offsides-coaches-challenge |last=Hardev |date=June 20, 2019 |website=Pension Plan Puppets |access-date=September 29, 2023}}
In 2009, Danish goalkeeper Kim Christensen was recorded on camera moving the goalposts in order to gain advantage over the opposing team. Christensen's moving the goalposts was discovered by a referee about 20 minutes into the game, but Christensen did not suffer a suspension or any fines for his actions.{{cite news|date=24 September 2009|title=Keeper guilty of moving goalposts |publisher=BBC Sport|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/8274016.stm|access-date=1 February 2017}}{{cite news|last1=Rose|first1=Ellie|date=25 September 2009|title=Kim Christensen admits moving the goalposts|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/2009/sep/25/kim-christensen-admits-moving-goalposts|access-date=1 February 2017}}
In May 2022, a scandal erupted when video published by Aftenposten showed Viking FK's goalkeeper Patrik Gunnarsson reducing his goal size by moving the goalposts by {{convert|15–20|cm|sigfig=1}}, after the referee inspection but prior to kickoff, in home games during the 2022 season.{{cite news |url=https://www.marca.com/en/football/international-football/2022/05/31/6296828446163f45948b4616.html |title=Goalkeeper Patrik Gunnarsson accused of making his goal smaller! |date=31 May 2022 |publisher=Marca |lang=en}}{{cite web|author1=Stig Nilssen |author2=Alexander Larsen |author3=Mats Haugland |title=Se video og bilder: Viking-keeperen flytter stolpene og gjør målet mindre: – Ser ikke bra ut |url=https://www.aftenposten.no/sport/i/PoQgQp/se-video-og-bilder-viking-keeperen-flytter-stolpene-og-gjoer-maalet-mindre-ser-ikke-bra-ut |date=30 May 2022 |publisher=Aftenposten |lang=no}}{{cite news |url=https://www.lastampa.it/sport/calcio/2022/06/01/video/scandalo_nel_calcio_norvegese_il_portiere_del_viking_fk_patrik_gunnarsson_accusato_di_truccare_la_sua_porta-5281151/ |title=Scandalo nel calcio norvegese, il portiere del Viking FK Patrik Gunnarsson accusato di 'truccare' la sua porta |date=June 2022 |publisher=La Stampa |lang=it}}
See also
{{columns-list|colwidth=25em|
- Ambit claim
- Bait-and-switch
- Creeping normality
- Destabilisation
- God of the gaps
- Mind games
- Motte-and-bailey fallacy
- Nirvana fallacy
- No true Scotsman
- "They Just Keep Moving the Line", song
- Overton window
- Special pleading
- Setting up to fail
- Slippery slope
- Texas sharpshooter fallacy
}}