[Angrist]

Your football example is beside the point here. We're talking about game mechanics, not player skills. In football the rules are the same, while the team skills vary. The only thing that might be unbalanced is weather conditions (1 team having to look into the sun), but that's why they switch sides (at least I assume they do).

Gamewise, every character needs to have a fair chance against any other character. Starcraft 2 for example is 99% balanced. And they constantly fix the 1%.