Affinity in the selection of a player

Abstract

In recent research on sports management, Gil-Lafuente (2002) puts forward a set of algorithms that are capable of resolving, from a scientific point of view, the problems faced by every person responsible for allocation of financial resources of a sports club. One of the questions of interest is the formation of groups of players who are substitutable among each other within the framework of team play. This is an essential matter that should be addressed prior to obtaining an order of preference among them. The proposed algorithms that are capable of providing a good solution to the problem were based on the theory of affinities. Inspired by these results, we propose an extension of the algorithm for the selection of a player, contributing elements that allow us to arrive at more general results. With this, and with no modification whatsoever, we have opened up a new path in the treatment of the proposed problem, in the event of a certain amount of uncertainty in the information. To address this case, we have started out with estimates made by means of intervals and also triplets or quadruples of confidence. Finally we have presented, within the extended concept of affinity, an algorithm based on the product of relations. We conclude by pointing out some alternative approaches to the concept of affinity, which we plan to develop in future works. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.