Game in hand

In competitive team sport, having a game in hand describes a team that has played one fewer matches than other teams around them, and as such has the potential to improve its relative position depending on the result of its subsequent game.

The term is regularly used in association football, but is also used in ice hockey, rugby league, rugby union and English cricket.

A team who is successful in a cup competition, for example, may find that League games are postponed to accommodate cup matches, especially in the latter rounds of the competition. For example, in the English League Cup, the Final is played on a weekend usually in February or March. As such, because only two teams are in that final, the rest of the League fixtures usually continue as normal, with only the games involving the two finalists being postponed. Early rounds of competitions usually include most teams from the League and no League matches are played, but as the competitions progress and fewer teams are involved, League games will take place under the assumption that neither team remains involved in that competition.

Involvement in other domestic and non-domestic competitions can also require League games to be postponed meaning that a team could have played two or three games fewer than those around them, especially if the teams around them have been eliminated from the domestic competitions in early rounds, or are not involved in the non-domestic competitions.

Postponements can also occur for other reasons, such as a frozen or waterlogged playing surface. These postponements are often made only a short time before the game begins and too late for alternative arrangements to be made - if such arrangements are even possible.

A game which is abandoned part way through usually has the result annulled and will require it to be replayed.

Finally, especially since the advent of sport being broadcast live on digital television, games are now spread throughout a whole weekend and are not always played on the same day. Thus a team can have played fewer games than their opponents, simply because their opponents play earlier in the weekend schedule.

The explanation below uses the points system in English League Football as an illustration. Other sports use different scoring systems, but the basic premise of a Game in Hand is the same. In English League football, teams gain 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a defeat. There is no bonus point system.

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Wikipedia