The lack of balance in the Spanish First Division football league

Parachute Payments in English Football: Softening the Landing or Distorting the Balance?

“…In relation to overall competitive balance our findings are consistent with the findings of Goossens (2006), Groot (2008) and Montes et al (2014) in the extant literature who all reported a decline in competitive balance in the English, Italian, German, Dutch and Spanish first divisions through their empirical work. Furthermore, the statistically significant results in relation to the number of clubs with parachute payments and the total value of those payments that are strongly correlated with HICB presents novel findings in relation to the 21 research agenda and poses some interesting discussion points that could be considered at policy level when measured against the theoretical underpinning sport leagues and competition.…”

Competitive Intensity, Fans’ Expectations, and Match-Day Tickets Sold in the Italian Football Serie A, 2012-2015

“…The body of literature analysing the UoO hypothesis provides inconsistent empirical results, and whilst some research supports the hypothesis (Peel & Thomas, 1997;Carmichael, Millington & Simmons, 1999;Wekli & Zlatoper, 1999;Falter & Perignon, 2000;Levin & McDonald, 2009;Schreyer & Torgler, 2018), the vast majority rejects it (Whitney, 1988;Knowles, Sherony & Haupert, 1992;Rascher, 1999;McDonald & Rascher, 2000;King, Owen & Audas, 2012;Coates & Humphreys, 2012;Coates, Humphreys & Zhou, 2014;Pérez, Puente & Rodríguez, 2017;Artero & Bandrés, 2018). Indeed, while these articles focus on a range of sports and therefore may yield differing outcomes, hitherto also within European association football the evidence is not conclusive (Peel & Thomas, 1992Forrest & Simmons, 2002;Goossens, 2006;Buraimo & Simmons, 2008, 2009de Groot, 2008;Michie & Oughton, 2004;Szymanski, 2001;Pawlowski & Anders, 2012;Scelles et al, 2013aScelles et al, , 2013bMontes, Sala-Garrido & Usai, 2014;Andreff & Scelles 2015;Caruso et al, 2017). Pawlowski (2013) suggests that empirical proof of the UoO hypothesis is absent because the proxies used to measure it are inadequate.…”

Mind the gap: an analysis of competitive balance in the English Football League system

“…This arguably underlines the strength of the Football League in England relative to other European football league systems such as Germany, Italy, Holland and Spain where there has been a decline in competitive balance in recent years (e.g. Goossens, 2006;Groot, 2008;Montes, Sala-Garrido and Usai, 2014). It also demonstrates to the English Football League authorities that their leagues have similar levels of competition overall and that there are no immediate concerns regarding their structure and format.…”