Efficiency and transparency of Spanish football clubs: A non‐parametric approach

As on‐field success is nowadays the main objective of European soccer clubs, good management needs to extract the highest sport success from the squad talent at hand. Because teams differ in their quality, performance needs to be compared with the best practice of comparable units. One remarkable source of heterogeneity across teams is the squad composition, which can produce gains from diversity together with communication costs. The paper studies the efficiency in sporting performance of soccer teams, paying attention to how the number of foreign players relates to productive inefficiency. Using data for 146 teams in the top 5 European leagues during 10 seasons, we estimate a double heteroskedastic True Random Effects Stochastic Frontier team production function. We find that (i) the number of passes, ball recoveries, and shots from the penalty area improve team efficiency, and (ii) a higher number of foreign players increase inefficiency. Our findings suggest that gains from squad diversity might be offset by communication costs.

show abstract

Evaluating the pinnacle of football match key statistics as in‐play information for determining the match outcome of Europe's foremost leagues

Xiaoyu,

Shasha

2024

Social Science Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study is to evaluate the pinnacle of football match key statistics as in‐play information for determining the match outcome of Europe's foremost leagues, namely those in England, Scotland, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Portugal, Belgium, Turkey, the Netherlands, and Greece. The study analyzed a sample of 98,849 matches across all sports leagues from the 2002/2003 to 2023/2024 seasons.MethodsThe techniques employed include the zero‐inflated Poisson regression model and generalized ordered logit/partial proportional odds (gologit/ppo) models.ResultsThe findings revealed that, for both home and away teams, the number of shots, shots on target, corners, and the changes from one season to another, as well as the occurrence of Covid‐19, are factors that encourage goal scoring. On the other hand, fouls committed, yellow cards, and red cards act as limiting factors for goal scoring. The effects are higher in the full‐time play than in the halftime. However, the impact of the number of goals scored in the last match and the effect of Covid‐19 are negligible for the home and away teams, respectively. Moreover, when comparing the impacts specifically within home teams and within away teams, it was found that yellow and red cards are highly detrimental, while the positive impact of shots on target surpasses these and other factors in home teams. In contrast, for away teams, the negative impact of yellow and red cards is more significant than any other factor.ConclusionFootball match key statistics including the number of shots, shots on target, corners, change from one season to another, fouls committed, yellow cards, red cards, last match outcome, and occurrence of Covid‐19 are essential determinants of the match outcome whether a team is at home or way but the impact is higher during the second half of the play.

show abstract

scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.

Contact Info

hi@scite.ai

10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614

Henderson, NV 89052, USA

Blog Terms and Conditions API Terms Privacy Policy Contact Cookie Preferences Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Made with 💙 for researchers

Part of the Research Solutions Family.

Efficiency and transparency of Spanish football clubs: A non‐parametric approach

Cited by 4 publications

References 45 publications

A shared-input integer network DEA approach linking football teams’ wages and market values

A shared-input integer network DEA approach linking football teams’ wages and market values

Foreign players, team production, and technical efficiency: Evidence from European soccer

Evaluating the pinnacle of football match key statistics as in‐play information for determining the match outcome of Europe's foremost leagues

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About