30 Times Someone Implemented A Rule That Massively Backfired

At one point in history, the president of Paraguay tried to eliminate racism by making it illegal to marry someone within your own ethnic group.

Needless to say, this was quite racist.

Infamous Barbados vs Grenada soccer match.

The organizers of the 1994 Caribbean tournament cup had a rather odd change to the rules for extra time. If a game was still drawn at full time, it would go to extra time but the first goal scored would win - this is perfectly normal (the "golden goal" rule). What was different is that they ruled that winning this way would count as having won by two goals for the purpose of tournament qualification, instead of just one.

Barbados went into a match against Grenada needing two goals to qualify for the main tournament. If they lost, or won by only one goal, Grenada would qualify instead. Under the regular rule, this would mean that if the match went to extra time, there would basically be no point Barbados playing because even if they scored, they would only win by one goal, and not qualify. But the two point rule would motivate them to play on. Sound good?

Well, you might be able to guess what happened.

The match looked like it was about to end with Barbados 2-1 Grenada - a win for Barbados, but not the two goals they needed. So Barbados deliberately scored an own goal in the last few minutes of the match, making the score 2-2, hoping to trigger extra time and a chance to score the magic 2-value goal.

The Grenada players quickly realized they could do the same - score an own goal to make the match 3-2 to Barbados, which would have Barbados winning by only one goal, so Grenada would qualify.

But the Barbados players realized that too.. and so they began to defend Grenada's goal.

So for the last 7 minutes of the match, Grenada were trying to score a goal in either net (since scoring a goal against Barbados would give them 3-2 and they would win the match, and scoring in their own goal would make it 3-2 to Barbados so they would lose the match but win the qualification), and Barbados were defending both.

Amazingly Barbados did actually manage to do so, successfully defending themselves while half of their team were defending Grenada's goal against Grenada, and then scored the golden goal in extra time and qualified!

At a preschool I worked at if we called out sick (even if we had sick time to use), we'd have to have a doctor's note when we came back or we'd be written up. Three write-ups equaled termination. So people would just come to work sick and then go homesick later in the morning since that wasn't considered calling out. Illnesses would spread like crazy and as far as I know, the policy still stands.

There was a teacher who fainted on her way out the door because she was so sick. Then we got in trouble with corporate for calling an ambulance and not some emergency service vehicle we had on contract. Probably the worst place I've ever worked.

The utility I worked for hired a new Human Resources Manager. One of the first new rules she implemented to 'cut overtime' was if you worked over one day you came in late by the same amount the next day. Ex: work over 15 min on Monday you came in at 8:15 Tuesday. No un-pre-approved exceptions.

The new rule went into effect Monday.

Wednesday a tractor-trailer accident resulted in my whole department working over 6 hours.

When the entire department came in at 3 pm the next day (yes I know that's 7 hours but lunch hour is noon), EVERYONE was freaking out. The head honcho-o looked like he was ready to have a heart attack. The Human Resources Manager was in his office getting a new asshole.

The new rule was rescinded that day. Human Resources Manager didn't last a year.

Dry Counties were meant to reduce the use of alcohol in certain areas, but they result in people who want to get drunk driving further away from home to do so, increasing the odds and frequency of drunk driving accidents. Also, many attempts to rescind dry county laws end up getting countered by campaigns paid for by the bars and liquor stores that are set up on the edge of dry counties, typically under the guise of religious messages.

"You have to eat whatever you touch" was a rule in my kindergarten which led to all the children touching all the food to call dibs on it.

A Buddy of mine told me about a Happy Hour promotion a bar ran close to his campus. Apparently the special was something stupid like 50-cent beers that lasted until the first person went to the bathroom.

As he tells it, the first few weeks went without incident, but once it got more popular, people were going to extreme lengths to not be "that guy" including wearing adult diapers. Once people tried to covertly pee in corners and trash cans, the bar cancelled the promotion.

Alcohol bans at college football games have led to increased intoxication problems because fans are loading up before going to the stadium.

Brazil in the 1980s (I think) had a massive debt problem, which they tried to solve by simply printing a bunch more money.

Any economist worth their salt would have told Brazil that would cause massive inflation, and that's exactly what happened. People found their life savings were barely enough to buy groceries for a week.

The military used to have a 2 beer lunch rule...they never specified the size of the beers.