Logistics in sports: How competition calendars are made?

Has anyone ever wondered whether the calendars of sporting competitions are related to logistical aspects?

This is the case of the Premier League (English football’s top division), which takes into account issues such as the distance between cities, the number of matches in the same region on the same day or the influx of public transport on specific dates when drawing up the calendar.

Manchester City FC and Liverpool FC fans outside Wembley Stadium in the run-up to the Cup Final.

Elaboration of the calendar

It is a complex process and is designed by an external company called Atos. First of all, it is necessary to know the so-called “FIFA dates” when international matches are played (national teams) and the “UEFA dates” when European competition matches are played (Champions League). Next, clubs must select an opponent, a team that they will not play at home on the same date in the calendar (many teams usually say the rival city club, e.g. Manchester United and Manchester City).

At this point they start to place restrictions, which are as follows:

• In a set of 5 matches, a maximum of 3 matches can be played as home or away, but never as home or away, but never more than 3.
• The maximum number of consecutive home matches is 2.
• The first two matches of the competition or the last two matches may not be played at home.
• On Boxing Day (26th and 27th December) or New Year’s Day only 1 away match may be played.

Review and approval phase

The incorporation of these restrictions results in a timetable that is reviewed by various bodies such as the British Police, the Transport Authority, the Supporters’ Federation, the Premier League, the Football League and Atos. The involvement of all these stakeholders, and in particular the transport authorities, allows for a more convenient timetable for fans, facilitating shorter journeys to watch their team, as well as avoiding traffic problems or congestion in the city itself.

Anfield (Liverpool FC) and Goodison Park (Everton FC) stadiums separated by Stanley Park.

For all this, the Premier League calendar takes into account logistical aspects such as distance, rivals, restrictions, and stakeholder involvement for fan convenience.

Working on a picking warehouse

I worked in a book distribution company for 3 months and got to know better how warehouse employees work, what their tasks are and how a picking warehouse is organised.

Layout of the warehouse

The warehouse could be divided into 3 zones.

• The first one was the truck loading or unloading area, where pallets full of boxes containing books were picked up and the packages were dispatched to the customers.
• The second area corresponded to the main part of the warehouse where the shelves where the different references (books and other articles) were located.
• Finally, the packing area where the books were packed and stacked on pallets.

Graphical representation of the warehouse layout

Picking process

Inside the warehouse there were different jobs, the first being that of the forklift drivers who unloaded the pallets from the lorries full of books and placed them on the shelves.

At the same time, and since it was not a task they had to do constantly, but only from time to time, they were in charge of picking up the books needed for the orders.

To do this, they had a list of references that corresponded to all the orders, they went through the entire warehouse to collect the number of books requested by the customers and put them in shopping trolleys/baskets to later take them to the parking area.

The packing process consisted of two parts and to facilitate the work there was a wall of drawers separating one part from the other.

• On one side, one or two operators with a computer scanned the barcodes of the references and placed the items in the number of the drawer that appeared on the screen, as well as the delivery note sheet and the package label.
• On the other hand, several operators collected the boxes with the items, assembled the packages with their corresponding labels and delivery notes and stacked them on the pallets

Graphical representation of manual packing and stacking on pallets

Once the pallets were formed, they were strapped so that they could be distributed to stationery shops, schools and supermarkets (some of them do school campaigns).

This experience allowed me to learn about the picking process in a warehouse, as well as the advantages of having a computerised warehouse (to a certain extent) and the disadvantages of having several people duplicating tasks.

Logistics department in a company in the food industry

During my experience working for an artisan company that produces fresh cheese, I realised how logistics departments work in the food industry, all the steps that exist from the moment an order is received until it is delivered to the customer company and made available to the consumer.

First of all, in my company Granja Rinya, logistics and orders were part of the same department, because depending on the number of orders received, a certain number of trucks will be required to transport the goods to the customers.

Receiving the orders

With regard to orders, there were two types of customers.

• The first, known as platforms, are supermarkets such as Mercadona, Consum, Carrefour, Día and El Corte Inglés, whose orders are received through a web portal that collects all orders and goods receipts.
• On the other hand, there are the traditional shops in cities such as butcher’s shops, restaurants or even schools, which need the product to prepare meals for pupils and orders are placed by telephone.

Once all the orders for the day have been collected, they are sent to the production department which, in a period of 2 days, prepares, packs and prepares the product to be loaded onto lorries. It is at this point that the finished product is distributed to the two types of customers.

Delivery of products to customers

In the case of supermarkets, the distribution of cheese is done through transport agencies that collect the goods from the suppliers and deliver the product to the customer (most of these supermarkets have logistics centres that collect all the ordered goods and then distribute them to all their shops themselves).

In the case of butcher’s shops, restaurants and schools, the artisan company has a fleet of trucks that deliver the cheese to the customers. For this purpose, routes are designed in which customers have been assigned according to where they are located.

Finally, once all the orders have been served, the complaints period begins where customers complain that they have not received the products they ordered or that they have received them in poor condition, that they have received them with little expiry date remaining or that they have received them late. This is the responsibility of customer service, which is also linked to the logistics department.

How Qatar was able to host the World Cup?

As a big football fan, the other day I was remembering the last World Cup in Qatar in November and it came to my mind, how can a country with less than 3 million citizens host more than 1 million people who came to watch football?

The choice of host

To explain it you have to go back to the beginning, when FIFA selected the Middle Eastern country to host the tournament. Everyone knows and it has been proven that the selection of Qatar was a fraud due to vote buying. But the organisers may not have thought about what the country had to do to host the World Cup.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter announces Qatar as the host nation for the FIFA World Cup 2022, in Zurich December 2, 2010.

Construction and accommodation of housing for fans

Qatar needed to build or remodel eight stadiums, training centres, roads, parks and even a new city, but the biggest challenge was to accommodate the 850,000 visitors, politicians, media and teams expected during the tournament. Many of the available rooms were secured by the organisers, leaving a shortage for fans.

The peak of demand would be on 27-28 November when organisers expected 276.000 ticket holders to seek accommodation. In spring 2022, Qatar had some 33,000-34,000 hotel rooms, and at the rate at which the country was building hotels, another 25,000 rooms were expected to be available by November. However, even with this optimistic estimate, the country still fell short of the target, so organisers used several strategies to increase the number of rooms available.

• Launched the “host a fan” campaign to encourage local people to host visiting fans.
• Offered camping in the desert outside Doha in a small tent city as a more affordable option.
• Recommended a satellite city called Madinatna, with two dozen hotels and a huge rental apartment complex that will house up to 27,000 fans.
• Made available two cruise ships that were in the port of Doha with a total of 3,898 cabins.

The Qataris also expected fans to stay in other Gulf cities, such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE or Muscat in Oman, thus reducing their hotel demand. However, delay in planning meant that there was constant construction work to build tents or bungalows to house fans while the tournament was taking place, angry fans clamouring for accommodation that had not yet been built and constant chaos on the streets of Doha.

Despite this, Qatar was able to host the World Cup, drawing the largest number of spectators in the event’s history and achieving its real goal, sportwashing the country’s image.