Dominic Cortis has been cheering the Foxes on since 2012. Photo: FacebookA Maltese mathematician whose tongue-in-cheek equation explaining how Leicester City won the Barclays Premiership title did the rounds on UK media says he’s up for repeating the formula for local champs Valletta FC.
University of Leicester graduate Dr Dominic Cortis teamed up with Prof. Jeremy Levesley to pounce on the Fearless Foxes’ success and get sports journalists across the UK scratching their heads in confusion.
Their equation takes into account a host of variables, including home and away win ratios, possession, shots-per-game and clean sheets. Around 20 various factors were used to describe the team's formula for success.
“No, we couldn’t have predicted Leicester City’s success at the start of the season,” Dr Cortis, who also serves as an assistant lecturer at the University of Malta, told Times of Malta.
“This was just meant as a fun exercise with some major stats. Predictions are just that – they’re not prophecies. Nor can they accurately predict freak events.”
But that’s not to say predictive modelling is all pie-in-the-sky.
Dr Cortis noted that, statistically, Leicester City’s chancing of winning the league were “much higher according to most models than what people were predicting” from November onwards.
“In essence, Arsenal and Manchester City were overrated from that point onwards.”
Elementary, Mr Vardy: the maths equation that explains Leicester City's success.While their resulting equation isn’t likely to land the pair a Fields Medal for outstanding mathematics, Dr Cortis hopes he’ll be dusting it off in 12 months’ time for a repeat viewing.
He’s been to watch Leicester City’s King Power Stadium every year since he moved to the city in 2012 and has adopted them as his team.
And if that doesn’t happen, there’s always Valletta FC.
“It would be cool to create a formula for Valletta. Maybe I could include La Vallette’s birthday in there while we’re at it,” he said mischievously, “though it does take longer than it seems.”