May 13 – No goals but a great game is often one of the endearing features of the beautiful game. Similarly a drab 0-0 draw is as much a part of the football fan’s painful journey as the euphoric and not too often 3-0 in the local derby.
But if it is 0-0 draws that you like then African football is the place to be.
New research by the CIES Football Observatory ranks 150 top division leagues and clubs worldwide according to the percentage of goalless games during the five-year period between January 2015 and December 2019.
The CIES finds that in the top 30 places of the ranking of most 0-0 draws are an astonishing 23 African domestic championships. The highest percentage overall was recorded in Gambia (23.5%) ahead of Cameroon (19.1%).
“The highest and lowest percentages per Confederation were recorded for Iraq (14.9%) and Macao (2.9%) in Asia (continental average of 7.6%), Gambia (23.5%) and Madagascar (7.4%) in Africa (13.9%), Haiti (18.5%) and Suriname (3.0%) in North America (8.1%), Argentina (11.5%) and Bolivia (5.6%) in South America (8.3%), as well as Montenegro(13.0%) and Northern Ireland (3.4%) in Europe (7.9%),” finds the report.
Looking at Europe’s Big 5 leagues, the soon to restart Bundesliga has the fewest 0-0 draws, followed closely by the Premier League, Serie A, LaLiga and Ligue 1.
See the full report at https://football-observatory.com/?lang=en
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