The new FIFA rules are hard: complexity aspects of sports competitions

Kern, Walter and Paulusma, Daniël (2001) The new FIFA rules are hard: complexity aspects of sports competitions. Discrete Applied Mathematics, 108 (3). pp. 317-323. ISSN 0166-218X

PDF
Restricted to UT campus only: Request a copy
94Kb

Abstract:	Consider a soccer competition among various teams playing against each other in pairs (matches) according to a previously determined schedule. At some stage of the competition one may ask whether a particular team still has a (theoretical) chance to win the competition. The complexity of this question depends on the way scores are allocated according to the outcome of a match. For example, the problem is polynomially solvable for the ancient FIFA rules (2 : 0 resp. 1 : 1) but becomes NP-hard if the new rules (3 : 0 resp. 1 : 1) are applied. We determine the complexity of the above problem for all possible score allocation rules.
Item Type:	Article
Copyright:	© 2001 Elsevier
Faculty:	Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS)
Research Group:	Discrete Mathematics and Mathematical Programming (DMMP)
Link to this item:	http://purl.utwente.nl/publications/74516
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0166-218X(00)00241-9
Export this item as:	BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager

Show download statistics for this publication

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Metis ID: 201958