I agree with you that tanking is impossible at higher level because of automatic promotion to higher levels.

Tanking might be very helpful for managers who want to win 100 or 200 tokens in association if they become in the top 10 world teams.

Managers who start tanking since level one or even 5 or 10 for 4 seasons then start climbing the level will accumulate thousands of tokens within their career and can sell one or two positions in their association for hundred of tokens if they were in top 100 or sell the whole association for 1000 tokens and that would be a good deal for any manager who want fame ....