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Scheduling the Belgian Soccer League

Department of Applied Economics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Department of Applied Economics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
dries.goossens{at}econ.kuleuven.be
frits.spieksma{at}econ.kuleuven.be

Every sports league needs a game schedule; such a schedule is important because it influences all parties involved and even the outcome of the sports competition. Interest in Belgian soccer has increased during recent years, as has interest in sports leagues in other countries. This paper describes our experiences in scheduling the highest division in the Belgian soccer league. We describe how we automated and improved the development of the 2006–2007 season schedule, and explain how we achieved additional improvement by dividing the scheduling problem into two problems. The resulting calendar has been accepted for the 2007–2008 season. We also compare the quality of the schedules generated using different scheduling methods.

Key Words: recreation and sports; programming; integer; applications