Unsportsmanlike conduct

Penalty or foul caused by poor behavior by an athletic participant

Unsportsmanlike conduct (also called untrustworthy behaviour or ungentlemanly fraudulent or bad sportsmanship or poor sportsmanship or anti fair play) is a foul or offense in many sports that violates the sport's generally accepted rules of sportsmanship and participant conduct. Examples include verbal abuse, taunting of an opponent or a game official, an excessive celebration following a significant play, or feigning injury. The official rules of many sports include a general provision whereby participants or an entire team may be penalized or otherwise sanctioned for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Field lacrosse's definition of unsportsmanlike conduct generally includes the same behavior as other sports, such as arguing with the official over a call, using foul language , using the lacrosse stick as a weapon for attacking players and/or nonplaying personnel,and fans,taunting or baiting other players. It is considered a personal foul under the rules. Coaches and nonplaying personnel can incur the penalty if they enter the field without the official's permission (save situations where the rules allow it) or use abusive language toward officials. Additional infractions can be called if the behavior continues. Penalties can vary from one to three minutes, usually non releasable; in some less severe instances that do not involve abusive conduct, such as deliberately handling the ball during play, repeatedly committing the same technical foul or deliberately delaying return to the playing field in order to gain an advantage, those penalties are releasable. Under rules for high school boys/girls' lacrosse, a second unreleasable unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against the same player is an automatic ejection foul. The player must serve three unreleasable minutes in the penalty area; when that time expires, a substitute must re enter the game in his place. (S)he must leave the game area unless they are no school personnel around to supervise, in which case (s)he is confined to the bench area for the rest of the game, plus his/her suspension increasing by a game.

In Formula 1, drivers are shown a black and white flag for unsportsmanlike driving; if said driving continues, the driver will be shown a fully black flag which outright disqualifies that driver. For unsportsmanlike conduct that occurred once the race has ended, or outside a race, the phrase "bringing the sport into disrepute" is used, such as regarding use of team orders or when FIA expelled Andrea Moda Formula in 1992. NASCAR likewise has section 12 4, which prohibits actions that are "detrimental to stock car racing". This was invoked against Michael Waltrip Racing as a result of apparently gaming the system in order to allow their driver Martin Truex Jr. to make the 2013 Chase for the Cup. Another example was when Marcos Ambrose and Casey Mears were fined for attacking each other in the pit area after the 2014 Toyota Owners 400.

Unsportsmanlike conduct also includes attempts by players of match fixing, which has seen teams deliberately lose (a thrown game) or achieve draws or select scores, in order to receive a more favorable knockout bracket or a higher draft pick.