Scheduling the LZV Cup

A time-relaxed double round robin

Three aspects make this sports scheduling problem different from most problems dealt with in the sport scheduling literature. Firstly, each division plays according to a so-called time-relaxed schedule, which means that the season has (many) more matchdays than there are matches per team. This is different from time-constrained scheduling, where the number of available matchdays is no more than the minimum number of days required to schedule all matches. Secondly, it is important to balance the rest days between matches involving the same team. The main idea behind this, is that most players prefer not to fully spend their weekend with their sport. Moreover, matches packed together could also lead to injuries. Thirdly, the league organizers are not worried about breaks, i.e. series of consecutive home games (or away games). The main idea behind this is that the home advantage is quite limited because there are usually few spectators. In professional leagues, in contrast, alternation of home and away matches is usually the most important constraint.