Are 104 games the way forward for the 2026 FIFA World Cup?
Since FIFA announced the 2026 World Cup is to feature 48 teams organized in 16 three-team groups, a lot of criticism has been raised by fans, media, and researchers.
Mario Guajardo is Professor at NHH. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Chile, and Ph.D. from NHH. His research interests include operations research, collaborative logistics, natural resource supply chains, game theory and sports analytics. He has collaborated in several projects with relevance in industry and government.
In recognition to the impact of his work, he became Franz Edelman Laureate in 2016 (INFORMS, USA) and finalist of the Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in the Practice of Advanced Analytics and Operations Research in 2020 (INFORMS, USA). He was also finalist of the EURO Excellence in Practice Award at the conference of the Association of European Operational Research Societies in 2009 (Germany) and 2018 (Spain).
He currently serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Shipping and Trade, the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, and the flagship journal of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies, International Transactions in Operational Research. He has also served as Chair of the IFORS Prize for OR in Development 2020 and 2023.
He enjoys teaching about decision making and likes to encourage his students to understand applications in real-world problems. He firmly believes the world can change for better through the use of operations research.
Author(s) | Title | Publisher |
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Bjørndal, Endre Jostein; Bjørndal, Mette; Bøe, Elisabeth Kjerstad; Dalton, Jacob; Guajardo, Mario | Smart home charging of electric vehicles using a digital platform | Smart Energy Volume 12; 2023 |
Osicka, Ondrej; Guajardo, Mario | Fair travel distances in tournament schedules: A cooperative game theory approach | Sports Economics Review (SER) Volume 2; 2023 |
Bang, Rasmus; Guajardo, Mario; Hansen, Bjørn Gunnar | Recent advances in decision support for beef and dairy farming: modeling approaches and opportunities | International Transactions in Operational Research Volume 30 (6); page 2807 - 2839; 2023 |
Nguyen, Gam Thi Hong; Ruzaeva, Daria; Goez, Julio Cesar; Guajardo, Mario | Insights on the introduction of autonomous vessels to liner shipping networks | Journal of Shipping and Trade Volume 7 (12) (27 pages); 2022 |
Duran, Guillermo; Guajardo, Mario; Gutiérrez, Facundo; Marenco, Javier; Saure, Denis; Zamorano, Gonzalo | Scheduling the Main Professional Football League of Argentina | INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics (IJAA) Volume 51 (5); page 361 - 372; 2021 |
Rezaeinia, Nahid; Goez, Julio Cesar; Guajardo, Mario | Efficiency and fairness criteria in the assignment of students to projects | Annals of Operations Research (19 pages); 2021 |
Duran, Guillermo; Guajardo, Mario; Gutiérrez, Facundo | Efficient referee assignment in Argentinean professional basketball leagues using operations research methods | Annals of Operations Research; 2021 |
Ben Jouida, Sihem; Guajardo, Mario; Klibi, Walid; Krichen, Saoussen | Profit maximizing coalitions with shared capacities in distribution networks | European Journal of Operational Research Volume 288 (2); page 480 - 495; 2020 |
Mirhedayatian, Seyed Mostafa; Crainic, Teodor Gabriel; Guajardo, Mario; Wallace, Stein William | A two-echelon location-routing problem with synchronisation | Journal of the Operational Research Society Volume 72 (1); page 145 - 160; 2019 |
Van Bulck, David; Goossens, Dries; Schönberger, Jörn; Guajardo, Mario | RobinX: a three-field classification and unified data format for round-robin sports timetabling | European Journal of Operational Research Volume 280 (2); page 568 - 580; 2019 |
Cea, Sebastian; Duran, Guillermo; Guajardo, Mario; Saure, Denis; Siebert, Joaquín; Zamorano, Gonzalo | An analytics approach to the FIFA ranking procedure and the World Cup final draw | Annals of Operations Research Volume 286; page 119 - 146; 2019 |
Osicka, Ondrej; Guajardo, Mario; Jørnsten, Kurt | Cooperation of customers in traveling salesman problems with profits | Optimization Letters Volume 14; page 1219 - 1233; 2019 |
Guajardo, Mario; Rønnqvist, Mikael; Flisberg, Patrik; Frisk, Mikael | Collaborative transportation with overlapping coalitions | European Journal of Operational Research Volume 271 (1); page 238 - 249; 2018 |
Alarcón, Fernando; Duran, Guillermo; Guajardo, Mario; Miranda, Jaime; Munoz, Hugo; Ramirez, Luis; Ramirez, Mario; Saure, Denis; Siebert, Matias; Souyris, Sebastian; Weintraub, Andrés; Wolf-Yadlin, Rodrigo; Zamorano, Gonzalo | Operations Research Transforms the Scheduling of Chilean Soccer Leagues and South American World Cup Qualifiers | Interfaces Volume 47 (1); page 52 - 69; 2017 |
Duran, Guillermo; Guajardo, Mario; Saure, Denis | Scheduling the South American Qualifiers to the 2018 FIFA World Cup by Integer Programming | European Journal of Operational Research Volume 262 (3); page 1109 - 1115; 2017 |
Guajardo, Mario; Rønnqvist, Mikael | A review on cost allocation methods in collaborative transportation | International Transactions in Operational Research Volume 23 (3); page 371 - 392; 2016 |
Flisberg, Patrik; Frisk, Mikael; Rönnqvist, Mikael; Guajardo, Mario | Potential savings and cost allocations for forest fuel transportation in Sweden: a country-wide study | Energy Volume 85; page 353 - 365; 2015 |
Guajardo, Mario; Jørnsten, Kurt | Common mistakes in computing the nucleolus | European Journal of Operational Research Volume 241 (3); page 931 - 935; 2015 |
Guajardo, Mario; Rønnqvist, Mikael | Operations Research models for coalition structure in collaborative logistics | European Journal of Operational Research Volume 240 (1); page 147 - 159; 2015 |
Guajardo, Mario; Kylinger, Martin; Rönnqvist, Mikael | Speciality oils supply chain optimization: From a decoupled to an integrated planning approach | European Journal of Operational Research Volume 229 (2); page 540 - 551; 2013 |
Since FIFA announced the 2026 World Cup is to feature 48 teams organized in 16 three-team groups, a lot of criticism has been raised by fans, media, and researchers.
The article "Efficient referee assignment in Argentinean professional basketball leagues using operations research methods" has been published in Annals of Operations Research.
Mario Guajardo was recently awarded a diploma in the final of 2020 Daniel H. Wagner Prize for his paper «Scheduling the Main Professional Soccer League of Argentina»
Mario Guajardo has made it through to the final of the 2020 Wagner Prize Competition, with an entry entitled "Scheduling the Main Professional Soccer League of Argentina".
The article "Profit maximizing coalitions with shared capacities in distribution networks" has been published in European Journal of Operational Research.
The article "A two-echelon location-routing problem with synchronisation" has been published in Journal of the Operational Research Society.
NHH promotes Endre Bjørndal, Mario Guajardo and Arnt Ove Hopland as full professors at the Department of Business and Management Science.
The call for papers on “Autonomous technologies in Transportation and logistics” is open until October 31, 2019.
The International Conference on Stochastic Programming was, for the first time, organized in Norway.
The article "RobinX: a three-field classification and unified data format for round-robin sports timetabling" has been published in European Journal of Operational Research.
The article "An analytics approach to the FIFA ranking procedure and the World Cup final draw" has been published in Annals of Operations Research.
The 16th CEMS Research Seminar on Supply Chain Management took place in Riezlern, Austria, from January 23 to 27, 2019.