Statistical Thinking in Sports

Abstract

According to popular belief, competitive balance in national soccer competitions in Europe has decreased due to the Bosman ruling and the introduction of the Champions League. We test this hypothesis using data from 7 national competitions, for a host of indicators. We find some evidence for competitive balance having decreased in England, and weak evidence for it having decreased in Netherlands and Belgium. For Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, we find no consistent change whatsoever. We use factor analysis to examine whether our measures of competitive balance can be condensed in a limited number of factors.

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