September 11 – Referees in South America are more card-happy than anywhere else in the world, handing out on average 5.83 cards per match. In Asia the refs average 4 cards a match, according to a survey of 87 divisions worldwide.
April 28 – The importance of scoring the first goal is highlighted in a 92-league analysis by the CIES Football Observatory that found the team scoring first generally goes on to win in about 70% of matches.
January 14 – An analysis of the four leading leagues in South America – Brazil’s Serie A, Argentina’s Superliga, the Chilean Primera División and the Mexican Liga MX – has thrown up a number of differences, most interestingly in the movement and development of playing talent.
January 8 – A player valuation ranking by the CIES Football Observatory makes Kylian Mbappé (France and Paris St-Germain) the world’s most valuable player at €265.2 million, with Man City and England’s Raheem Sterling at €223.7 million.
December 3 – Lionel Messi heads a table of outfield players who have played the highest percentage of domestic league minutes in the big-5 league team in the 2010s.
May 29 – An analysis of the percentage of points needed to win one of the Big 5 European leagues shows that over the past 20 years championship winning teams have progressively increased the percentage of points available to them.
May 7 – As the Summer transfer window creeps closer to opening and big clubs prepare for their close season shopping, a ranking of Big 5 league U20 players by value has been released with England and Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho (pictured) top of that list.
March 13 – Data looking at the highest and lowest percentages of shots on target across 30 European leagues sees Manchester United leading teams in the Big 5 leagues, ahead of Barcelona.
February 18 – Players who have developed through the Barcelona or Real Madrid academies are far more likely to have careers in Europe’s Big 5 leagues than players developed anywhere else in Europe.
January 16 – This season’s Big 5 European league champions will be Manchester City, Barcelona, PSG, Juventus and Bayern Munich, according to a set statistical model developed by the CIES Football Observatory.
January 7 – With the European winter transfer window now open, any club looking to buy at the top end of the player market is going to have to spend over €100 million, and to buy at the very top they would need more than €200 million – if the players were for sale.
December 4 – Fans who want to see the ball in play get the best value of money in Europe’s Big 5 leagues if they watch the Bundesliga where the ball is in play on average 58.5% of the time. Sweden’s Allsvenskan tops the list of European leagues though with the ball in play 60.2% of the time.
June 7 – Neymar may hold the record as the most expensive transfer in football history, but he isn’t the most valuable player in the world. Tottenham’s Harry Kane holds that position, valued €3.7 million higher than the Brazilian money machine, according to a new ranking of the Top 100 players in Europe’s Big 5 leagues.
March 21 – If Tottenham Hotspur were to sell Harry Kane they would see a return on investment of €198 million, making him the biggest and best potential piece of player business in the world. Lionel Messi, of Barcelona were to sell him, could net €197 million for the club.
March 6 – The latest CIES Football Observatory data report looks at the clubs with the best ratios between shots taken and conceded from inside the box during the current domestic league season.