Abstract:

The purpose of this research is to rank the teams in a football league season using PageRank-based listing algorithm according to their win-lose, offensive and defense performance. The results of 306 matches played by the 18 teams participating in the 2017-18 season of the Turkish Football Super League according to the double round league procedure, the goals thrown and defeated and the score table was taken from the website of the Turkish Football Federation. The data is processed with the Matlab software. If the teams win, win and remain equal in the league, the league rankings consisting of the points they obtained in their official status, respectively 3 points, 0 points and 1 points, and the relationship between PageRankdirekt, PageRankofans, PageRankdefans and PageRankfark values is assessed by the non-parametric correlation of Spearman's rho. The PageRank algorithm compared the main list ranking applied according to win-loss, offensive and defensive performance, and this study found that the team’s success rankings changed.  The most successful teams in PageRankdirekt and PageRankfark rankings remain the same while they are ranked different from the official ranking. Similarly, as they were in the last third place, the sub-league teams were different from the official status in both PageRankdirekt and PageRankfark rankings.  These results show that the teams get points from strong or weak competitors in different values and that they are more accurate to get points according to their weight. It is also shown that if the score difference in the winning matches or the defeated, defeated goals are taken into account and success rankings are made, an objective performance assessment will be made. In addition, a mathematical model can be developed to determine the score to be distributed in the competitions. The findings of this study have shown significant differences in order to discuss alternative methods to be used in the ranking of teams. The new ranking approach has been tested to make it possible to make a fairer and quality league ranking and the objective advantages have been highlighted according to the straight score system. In advanced research, a method in which different qualities are assessed by modifying the PageRank algorithm can be suggested for the football industry.