Course / Challenges

Challenge: the league table

Turn a season of results into points, goal difference and final positions, with a proper tie-break and a champion. Advanced · 9 min · Points from cells, RANK, COUNTIFS, INDEX/MATCH, MAX

You keep the records for a ten-team Sunday football league. The season is over, and the club secretaries want the final table: points, goal difference, positions and the champions. GF and GA are goals for (scored) and goals against (conceded).

A win is worth 3 points, a draw 1 and a loss 0, but those values live in L2:L4. The league votes on its scoring every summer, and your table should survive a rule change with one edit.

> The teams are listed alphabetically, not in league order. Sorting them out is the formulas' job.

Steps

  1. In G2:G11, work out each team's points from its wins, draws and losses. Use all three values in L2:L4, even the 0 for a loss, so a change to the scoring flows straight through.

  2. In H2:H11, show each team's goal difference: goals scored minus goals conceded.

  3. In I2:I11, give each team its league position by points, with the most points in 1st place.

  4. Teams level on points are separated by goal difference. Rework I2:I11 so that each team drops one place for every team on the same points with a better goal difference. Positions 1 to 10 should then each appear exactly once.

  5. In L6, show the name of the team with the most points. Work it out with a formula, so it would update if a late result changed the table.

Remember

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