Q&A with the man behind the football fixtures

The football league fixtures have been announced today so Computing caught up with Glenn Thompson from Atos Origin, who has been collating the fixtures for more than 14 years.

How is software used to create the football league fixture lists?

The software is used to create the random element of the fixture list. There's a lot of manual work done in advance in terms of programming everything and entering data into the computer that we use. We have also taken "pairings" into account, which ensures Manchester United don't play at home on the same day as Manchester City or Arsenal don't play in North London on the same day as Tottenham.

So what you're basically telling the computer is who the home teams are and who the away teams are on any one day of the season. Then the system randomly selects the games that should be played.

What are the main concerns for the Premier League and Football League when compiling the lists, and how is the technology used to reflect this?

Teams in the leagues submit questionnaires to the league stating whether there are any days in the year that they do not wish to play at home, and that's all taken into account. In addition, in any set of five fixtures, a team can only have three away games and two home games, or two away and three home games.

A club must have no more than two consecutive home or away games in a row, and you also have to take international fixtures into account when programming the system each year.

How has the technology used to create the lists evolved over time?

As technology has moved on, the big difference is that, 15 or 16 years ago, you would set the system running, go home for the night, and it would be finished by the following morning. Obviously, hardware has improved and processes have become faster over time, and now the fixture list is produced in less than five minutes when you input the data.

The initial software was written in IBM Basic Compiler in 1982, but that's moved to Visual Basic over the years and we're looking at using Microsoft .Net for the next iteration. It's been rewritten many times, but the concept behind it stays the same. We're just trying to keep up with modern technologies to get more efficiency out of it.

In what other areas of football is IT playing an important role?

There's obviously a lot of discussion in the press about the use of IT in goal-line technology, i.e. did the ball cross the line or not. That's still open for debate. I'm not directly involved in that, but – from a personal point of view – if a decision can be made quickly by the referee using technology, that can only be good for the game.

Who do you think will win the Premier League in the 2011/12 season?

It's wide open this year; there are a number of teams. The top four from last year and a resurgent Liverpool all stand a chance. It's completely open; there's not one team I'd put my money on this year.