move the goalposts BrE informal
shift the goalposts BrE informal

But it is too late for that now - you cannot move the goalposts during the game.

You don't get to move the goalposts after the game has started.

"How do I know you won't move the goalposts again?"

They argue to move the goalposts and to make it appear sane to do so.

"This is a classic case of moving the goalposts."

Forget moving the goalposts - this was more like tearing them down altogether.

"Essentially, he's moved the goalposts and everyone here is noodling how to respond."

It's just harder than it looks, some people are always foolish and the media keeps moving the goalposts.

It is the equivalent of moving the goalposts to shorten the field, compensation experts say.

And since they moved the goalposts back 10 yards, it will be difficult to match the all-time leaders."

The term is always accusatory; nobody boasts of moving the goalposts.

And hence, worst of all, the American decision to move the goalposts at Geneva in 1988.

This proposal should not serve as an excuse to lay down new standards and to move the goalposts where environmental protection is concerned.

The tactics of bullying behaviour include moving the goalposts.

The creationists will simply abandon any discredited methodology and move the goalposts, as they always do.

The answer to failure and sin is not to move the goalposts but to repent and try again.

He says: 'They do keep moving the goalposts.

In recent years, applicants for grants have moved the goalposts on censorship to where it now means "the withholding of taxpayer support."

After a public outcry at moving the goalposts halfway through the tournament, this was not followed through.

However, others said that Milburn should not move the goalposts when it comes to poverty targets.

What it needs is an historian who isn't afraid to jazz things up a bit- sidestep the facts and move the goalposts.

'He was always moving the goalposts so that we could never anticipate what he wanted.'

My comment about gymnastics is because the Apple faithful have moved the goalposts on more than one occasion when it comes to unit sales.

Tough, Dave and Gideon are moving the goalposts.

Rachel Now you're moving the goalposts.

Way to shift the goalposts into a totally different stadium!

It has been subtly shifting the goalposts of what can be done in and through art.

In workplace bullying, shifting the goalposts is a conventional tactic.

"Marketing randomized him by shifting the goalposts every week."

This sounds like shifting the goalposts to me.

You keep shifting the goalposts, failing to respond to arguments that prove you wrong.

'We know what the rules are at present but the bureaucrats in Brussels could easily shift the goalposts.

Which is shifting the goalposts from the main point and narrative of your article: that children can't access at home the software they use at school.

Moving the goalposts or shifting the goalposts is an idiom which means changing the terms of a debate or a conflict after it has started.

Al-Qadhafi's real intent may have been to shift the goalposts of debate so that the steps he ultimately takes seem comparatively palatable.

You Apple fanboys are endlessly shifting the goalposts in order to keep the fantasy alive that the iPhone is still number one.

Moving the goalposts (or shifting the goalposts) is a metaphor meaning to change the criterion (goal) of a process or competition while still in progress, in such a way that the new goal offers one side an intentional advantage or disadvantage.