April 2 – The big just keep on getting bigger, with the gap to the minnows ever increasing, is the obvious conclusion from research looking at the percentage of matches with a gap of three or more goals across 29 European competitions.
The most uncompetitive of Europe’s competitions is its biggest one, with CIES Football Observatory finding that 29% of Champions League matches are decided by a three goal or more margin – an 8% increase on last season.
In contrast the Europa League is far more evenly matched with 16% of matches decided by margins of three or more goals.
The Premier League, which has so for some time prided itself on its perceived competitiveness that any team might beat any other, should probably rethink that boast. The league has the third highest proportion of very uneven matches among the competitions surveyed at 22% – up 4% on last season.
Of the Big 5 European leagues the CIES research finds the Bundesliga has the lowest percentage of games with a three or more goal gap at 11% – a drop of 6% on last season. Russia has the most competitive league in these stats with 10% (-4% on last season).
“The percentage of imbalanced fixtures increased in 20 out of the 29 competitions analysed. Overall, the average goal gap per match increased from 1.37 to 1.40. The highest figure for this indicator was also recorded at Champions League level: 1.87 from 1.55 last season (+21%). This analysis reveals the general trend towards competitive unbalance in European football,” said the CIES.
See the report at http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2017/221/en/
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1714120664labto1714120664ofdlr1714120664owedi1714120664sni@n1714120664osloh1714120664cin.l1714120664uap1714120664