Why aren't the own goals always awarded to the last attacker

fixit_fiona

From this Wikipedia article on own goal An own goal is when a player scores in their own team's net or scoring area, not the opposing team's, during sports games in which points scored are referred to as "goals" (e.g., association football). An own goal is usually accidental, but is counted as a regular goal. It may result from an attempt at a defensive play that either failed or was unexpectedly intercepted by an opposing player. It is...

Originally asked by Satya on Stack Exchange (sports) (CC BY-SA 4.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

There maybe many reasons, but one of the reason why this can't be given to the last attacker can be understand from this paragraph of this fifa.com article. In the current era, greater prizes are offered for top goalscorers, in tournaments and league championships, and the ranking can sometimes depend upon one goal attributed to an attacker or as an own goal. Objective definitions should certainly not depend upon the interests of individual awards or commercial promotions - but this, too, is part of the reality of the game today. Another paragraph from the same article that may be important to this question. Statisticians have long since recorded the names and feats of goalscorers, and...

Full answer by Ram Chandra Giri: https://sports.stackexchange.com/a/17000 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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