Optimized generation of sports competition tables: equity considerations between teams in the Brazilian Football Championship

• Grant number: 24/11515-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: August 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Production Engineering - Operational Research
• Principal Investigator: Leonardo Junqueira
• Grantee: Rafael Oliveira Carsch
• Host Institution: Escola Politécnica (EP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 22/03182-1 - Mathematical models and solution methods for large-scale combinatorial optimization problems, AP.PNGP.PI

Abstract

This problem, which belongs to the class of Operations Scheduling Problems, consists of determining the moment ("round") and place ("home stadium") in which the teams will face each other during a double round-robin football championship. In addition to basic constraints that must guarantee the absence of calendar conflicts between teams, there are also a series of constraints that must try to guarantee equity between teams throughout the championship, such as, for example, the absence of consecutive matches with the same home team (called "breaks"), and the absence of sequences of matches that can favor or disfavor one of the teams (called "carryover" effects). Minimizing both the occurrence of "breaks" and "carryover" effects favors the generation of more balanced and fair tables between the teams participating in a championship. In this research project, the main objective is to propose hybrid solution methods (based on a mixed integer linear programming model) for the problem at hand. As case study, we intend to use the tables from Series A of the Brazilian Football Championship. The problem at hand consists of a hard combinatorial optimization problem, which, in the real situation addressed, involves thousands of variables and constraints. Moreover, solving this problem can be useful for institutions that organize championship tables with the characteristics studied (double round-robin football championships).