OPERATIONS RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FOR FOOTBALL TEAMS FORMATION: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

ABSTRACT Team formation is a key aspect of football, being able to bring sporting and financial results, but also susceptible to great risks. Considering that this problem involves subjective decisions, it also becomes subject to failures. The use of quantitative approach methodologies can overcome such aspects and offer better results for football clubs. In this context, a systematic review was carried out on Operations Research techniques for player selection and formation of football teams, demonstrating the main references and authors of the area. A search on the scientific bases Web of Knowledge, Scopus, and ScienceDirect was carried out during the month of January of 2018, analyzing a total of 1,637 articles. Of these, only 12 were selected for analysis. The research of Boon and Sierksma (2003) was identified as the main reference of the area, being referenced by four other authors. It is highlighted the low number of citations between the papers, as well as the lack of review articles like this one. All these aspects contribute to the relevance of this research, addressing a significant problem in one of the most popular sports in the world and unifying its main references.