{"id":4302,"date":"2021-12-21T17:00:45","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T17:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/?p=4302"},"modified":"2021-12-21T17:20:05","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T17:20:05","slug":"all-i-want-for-christmas-is-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marriott-stats.com\/nigels-blog\/all-i-want-for-christmas-is-football\/","title":{"rendered":"All I want for Christmas is football!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will there be any football this Christmas?\u00a0 The Omicron variant of COVID19 is wreaking havoc with football and rugby schedules<\/a> and the traditional Boxing Day lineup is in danger of being cancelled.\u00a0 So what will football fans do instead?\u00a0 The good news is I am giving a Christmas present to all football supporter that is almost as good as the real thing.\u00a0 All you need are 2 packs of playing cards, a pen and paper or a spreadsheet and you can play a simple football simulation game which guarantees fun and excitement for all.<\/p>\n

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What you need to play football with playing cards<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n

You will need two standard decks of 52 cards plus 2 jokers per pack making a total of 108 cards (104 standard cards plus 4 jokers).\u00a0\u00a0It is important for your jokers to be distinguishable in some way.\u00a0 In my packs of cards the jokers look different in each pack but if they are identical across the two packs you will need to put H (for home side) on two of the jokers and A (for away side) on the other two.<\/p>\n

You also need a large enough table to lay out up to 30 cards at a time plus a pen and paper or spreadsheet to record your results.<\/p>\n

How is the game played?<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Shuffle the 108 cards together as thoroughly as you can and then deal out 6 non-joker cards (plus any jokers if they occur) face up to represent a single match.\u00a0 Each non-joker represents 15 minutes of play whilst a joker is a sending off which changes the odds of the game but doesn’t represent a period of time.\u00a0 If you are playing a cup match which has gone to extra time, then 2 more non-joker cards (plus jokers if they occur) should be dealt out to represent extra time.\u00a0 If the match goes to penalties then a single card for each penalty is dealt out until someone wins.<\/p>\n

If playing a competition, I usually deal out 3 or 4 games at once which may mean up to 28 cards laid out on your table.\u00a0\u00a0Once you are familiar with the rules, I find I am able to deal out and record results at the rate of about 60 to 90 games an hour.\u00a0 That means you can play a wide variety of league and cup formats.<\/p>\n

What do the card values mean if no players are sent off?<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Here is a photo of 3 games I’ve dealt out from left to right.\u00a0 The left hand card denotes the 1st 15 minutes of the game and the right hand card is the last 15 minutes of the game.\u00a0 I create a gap in the middle so that I can see the 1st half and 2nd half separately.\u00a0 No jokers were dealt out here so that means all sides finished the game with 11 players and there were no sending offs.<\/p>\n

Red cards (hearts & diamonds) represent the home team.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Black cards (clubs & spades) represent the away team.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jokers need to be split with half representing the home team and the other denoting the away team<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The following cards are Goal Cards<\/strong> and equate to the following number of goals for a 15 minute period.\"\"<\/p>\n