Does Reckless Play Impress You?

We specifically wrote our "Predict-A-Win" Program to be able to predict the most likely match results based on there being 11 men playing the full 90 minutes in both teams. It did not occur to us to attempt to include a module for trying to decide whether or not a team will eventually end up with less people on the field because of reckless actions on the part of some players.

Frankly, if a team regularly has players sent off and then cannot perform as it should, we consider that those exiting players (and maybe the whole team, if reckless play is their modus operandi) should be considered guilty of conducting themselves badly in full knowledge that such actions will have consequences that are harmful to their supporters, even if it's only loss of face in the workplace on Monday morning.

But seriously - come on now! Don't the fans deserve something better than that? After all, many of them have bought highly expensive season tickets and are willing to give up their valuable time to go along to support their favourite teams. Do the players seriously think that their fans are impressed by their inability to win when their team is one or more men down through the recklessness of its own players?

The players are also fully aware that there will always be a huge number of people out there who have staked their hard-earned money on the team of their choice 'doing the business'. One of these days somebody might attempt to put together a class action against a team that regularly ends up fielding less than the intended 11 players and thereby causing so many people to lose the bets they placed in good faith, expecting their chosen team to do its best to play fairly and win honestly, every single time!