Welcome
This is The Game Is A Foot, a site which aims to use mathematics to provide a new look at the world of sport, in particular football. For those of you with a fear or dislike of mathematics, don't fret, not only is the maths on here not too complicated, but there will also be plenty of analysis with lots of adjectives, adverbs and all those other words.
I feel that in modern football media there is a mistrust of statistics and numbers, due to newspapers and the like misusing the data to twist it into suiting arguments. Neutrality is very much at the core of the articles here. I am also happy to put up guest articles; please contact me if you wish to contribute. Articles don't necessarily have to be about mathematics in sport, although I would prefer them to be either about one or the other. Latest News
4th January, 2013
The competition is now closed. You can view the answers here. The winner will be announced shortly. 11th January, 2013 If you scroll down to the bottom of this page, you will see that the first entry is exactly one year ago today! And to celebrate this, we have a very exciting competition for you to enter and possibly win a prize - make sure you check it out! 14th December, 2012 As I'm sure you will have noticed, I've been awful for updating this recently. I begun my PhD in October, and it's been such solid maths work that I've not felt the motivation to do extra maths work in my spare time. Sorry. Anyway, Plus Magazine are offering a chance for aspiring popular maths authors to have work published in an upcoming book. More details are available on their website. One of the categories they are looking for is sport, so hopefully this is of interest. 3rd October, 2012 The site has a new look! Hope you like it! 9th September, 2012 Wow, nearly three months since my last article; which is pretty embarrassing. Taking in the European Championships, but to a much greater extent, the Olympic and Paralympic Games has clearly had an effect. Anyway, with the incredible summer of sport drawing to a close, here is an article comparing various countries' success over the two Games this century. 17th June, 2012 After a finale to Group A in Euro 2012 which left many people confused as to what each team needed to progress, here is our guide showing what is needed for teams in the other groups. 13th June, 2012 Here is the second part of the analysis of Premier League stats. Here we look at what affects position the most - corners, penalties or shot accuracy? 31st May, 2012 With University out of the way (forever), time for the first in what will hopefully be a rush of new articles. Following on from the update on the 19th of March, this is the first article breaking down the database of Premiership statistics, and answering a key question - is it more important to score goals, or avoid conceding goals? 24th April, 2012 Probably the wordiest article to date (frankly this is a bonus, I have so much work to do that I didn't expect to update this site until I finish my degree in May), here is a look at why new managers often seem to have an instant impact. 10th April, 2012 I am absolutely delighted to say that TGIAF's penalties and game theory article has been reproduced (with permission) on the Youth Football Scotland website! Check it out! 24th March, 2012 Any work on this website is on hold for the foreseeable future, due to my laptop, containing data for a few pieces of research I am undertaking, breaking. 19th March, 2012 Having completed a database full of Premier League statistics, in the next fortnight I will be looking at breaking down the data. Any suggestions for trends, etc, that I can look for would be much appreciated. 11th March, 2012 For anyone interested in improving their knowledge of sport, we now have a catelogue of the best sources around to learn about sports, especially football. 8th March, 2012 We have our very first guest article! Another article on game theory, but this time looking at competition between different racers in Formula One. 28th February, 2012 A similar article to the previous one, this time looking at how age affects batting averages. Fun for both fans of cricket, and normal distributions. 23rd February, 2012 Our first cricket article is published. It is a look at how we can compensate for the opposition faced when looking at player's batting averages. Also added a new page, which shows concisely the information found from each article. 16th February, 2012 Here is a look at the whether the media perception of Premiership wages is reactionary. Includes a brief explanation of logarithmic scales. Also, added "award-winning" to the description of the game theory article. Why? Because it won an award. 9th February, 2012 Other commitments have been slowing me down considerably. So here is a look at the footedness of goalkeepers and outfield players. The research took almost no time at all to undertake, and the writing of it not much longer. Or at least, it would have done if I hadn't have deleted the entire thing just as I was finishing it off. 18th January, 2012 With Wikipedia down today, hampering my latest research, here instead is a look at whether UEFA should change its qualification system for major tournaments. 14th January, 2012 A new article added; a look at which positions England are best at producing. 11th January, 2012 Website goes live! Starts with two articles, one a teaser for a more detailed upcoming look at newspaper transfer rumours, and a very long-winded look at the link between penalties and game theory. |
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