The brand new CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report compares 87 top divisions worldwide from the point of view of the number of yellow and red cards given by referees between 2015 and 2020. The study highlights great differences according to country and reveals the existence of significant correlations between the amount of cards per match and many socio-economic indicators for nations.

The number of cards varies considerably according to the confederation of belonging of the leagues studied. At one extreme, in South America (CONMEBOL), referees handed out on average 5.83 cards per match. This figure is 45% higher than that observed in the 15 Asian (AFC) leagues included in the study (4.00). Invariably, away teams receive more cards than home ones.

The gross domestic product (GDP) and the Human Development Index (HDI) are inversely correlated to the quantity of cards. This indicates that the matches played in nations whose inhabitants enjoy a higher standard of living and education are less fraught, or at least are less sanctioned by the referee corps.

A significant positive statistical correlation was also measured between the amount of cards and the homicide rate per country. The violence present in a society thus seems to be transposed to football. In addition, the more citizens consider that the level of corruption in their country is high, the more referees are likely to hand out cards. This result could reflect the existence of a social climate where distrust and suspicion are rife.

These findings show that football matches take place under different dynamics according to the social, economic, political and cultural context of the country in which they are played. They confirm the very strong link between football and society and reveal the importance of taking into account the specifics of countries for a fine analysis of the game even in a context of globalisation.

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The 303rd edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the big-5 league players whose transfer value would increase the most if their contract with the club of belonging was extended for an additional year. The most positive gap overall was recorded for Jadon Sancho (+€43M), ahead of Kylian Mbappé (+€39M) and Lionel Messi (+€35M).

With two years of contract remaining, the transfer value of Jadon Sancho according to the exclusive CIES Football Observatory algorithm is currently just above €180M. A one-year contract extension would drive this figure up to €223M. If Kylian Mbappé extended his contract with Paris St-Germain from June 2022 to June 2023, his estimated transfer value would increase from €242M to €281M.

Lionel Messi leads the table among players with only one year of contract remaining ahead of Georginio Wijnaldum and Ferran Torres. By renewing their contracts for an additional year, their transfer values would increase from about €80M to €115M for Messi, from €44M to €64M for Wijnaldum, as well as from €42M to €61M for Torres.

Issue number 302 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses the InStat data on ball movement in kilometres during possession phases by teams from 35 European competitions for the seasons 2018/19 and 2019/20 (2018 and 2019 for summer leagues). Bayern Munich (12.7 km per match) outranks Manchester City (12.5 km) and Liverpool (12.3 km).

Bayern Munich players achieve on average slightly fewer passes per game than those of Manchester City (705 versus 722), but their distance is longer (18.0 metres versus 17.3). Liverpool players only make 654 passes per match (9th position), but their length (18.8 meters) is much greater than that measured for the vast majority of teams in the top positions of the rankings.

The Greek side of Panionios is at the bottom of the table with a ball circulation distance of about 6.8 kilometres per game. Cardiff City is anti-penultimate with the lowest number of successful passes overall (326). The highest average passes lengths were recorded for two Scottish teams: Livingston (23.1 meters) and Hamilton Academical (22.4). Contact us to know more about InStat data and services.

The 56th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report analyses the characteristics of the coaches at the head of 1,646 teams from 110 leagues in 79 countries worldwide. The study covers three aspects: the age, the length of stay in the club managed and the origin. The typical profile for a coach is a male just under 50 years of age (48.8) in charge for less than one year (301 days).

Altogether, 28.3% of coaches managing on the 1st of June 2020 the teams analysed grew up in another association than that of the club trained. This percentage is higher than that measured among players in the same competitions: 24.7%. The analysis also shows that almost two-thirds of coaches are former professional players: 64.3%. Defenders over-represented, while former goalkeepers are under-represented.

Issue number 301 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post reveals that Argentina is the most represented nation among expatriate coaches. The 68 Argentinians present abroad on the 1st June 2020 were at work in 22 different countries. Most of them were active in other Latin American countries. Similar to players, their top destination was Chile (11 coaches). Spaniards are also well represented abroad (41 coaches in 21 countries), as well as Serbs (34 coaches in a record number of 24 countries).

The 300th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post compares 35 European leagues according to the number of penalties per game whistled by referees since the 2017/18 season (2018 for summer leagues) as per data provided by our partners InStat. At the top of the table is the Polish Ekstraklasa (a penalty every 230 minutes), while at the opposite end is the Norwegian Eliteserien (every 389 minutes).

The Premier League (382’) and the Championship (377’) in England are the second and third leagues where the fewest penalties are whistled, which confirms the particular style of refereeing in the United Kingdom. This result can also be explained by the lower tendency of players to ‘look for fouls’. Penalties are also not whistled very often in the German Bundesliga (321’), while their frequency is much greater in the Italian Serie A (249’), the French Ligue 1 (262’) and the Spanish Liga (268’).

At club level, the Serbian side Crvena Zvezda leads the rankings with a penalty obtained every 209 minutes. Among big-5 league clubs, Lazio (296’) tops the table ahead of Paris St-Germain (319’) and Sampdoria (325’). Burnley FC is at the other end of the spectrum with only four penalties in 105 matches (every 2’362 minutes), ahead of Newcastle United (five penalties, of which only one scored) and the Norwegians of Odds BK.

The 299th edition of the Weekly Post presents the 100 big-5 league players with the highest estimated transfer values according to the CIES Football Observatory algorithm. Kylian Mbappé tops the list ahead of four Englishmen: Raheem Sterling, Jadon Sancho, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Marcus Rashford. The young Bayern Munich prodigy Alphonso Davies enters the top 10.

Despite the COVID-19 crisis, the estimated transfer value of Kylian Mbappé remains very high: €259.2 million. The French striker is still very young and his contract with Paris St-Germain only ends in 2023. With just one year of contract remaining and almost 33 years of age, Lionel Messi (€100.1 M) only ranks 21st. Cristiano Ronaldo (€62.8 M, 70th) is the oldest player in the top 100 list. In total, 22 big-5 league footballers have an estimated value of more than €100 million.

Alphonso Davies (9th, €133.5 M) is the youngest footballer in the top 20 ahead of Erling Haland (15th, €107.3 M). The most expensive players per position are Ederson Moraes (€86.8 M) for goalkeepers, Matthijs de Ligt (€104.7 M) for centre backs, Trent Alexander-Arnold (€171.1 M) for full backs, Frenkie de Jong (€102.1 M) for defensive midfielders, Bruno Fernandes (€104.9 M) for attacking midfielders and Kylian Mbappé (€259.2 M) for forwards.

The German Bundesliga was the first major European league to restart after the COVID-19 break. Issue number 298 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the players with the best statistics during current season for eight different indicators according to the data provided by our partners OptaPro.

Yann Sommer leads the table for the number of saves, Kingsley Ehizibue (Köln) did the most successful tackles, while Omar Mascarell (Schalke 04) and Jamilu Collins (Paderborn) made the most interceptions. Alphonso Davies (Bayern) heads the rankings for successful dribbles, Sven Bender (Bayer) for accurate passes, Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig) for assists having led to attempts and Robert Lewandowski (Bayern) for shots.

Union Berlin’s centre forward Sebastian Andersson won more than twice aerial duels than the second player who won the most: 210 compared to 102. This astonishing figure is related to the style of play of his team, which fields the tallest line-ups in Europe, as illustrated by the exclusive CIES Football Observatory Demographic Atlas.

Issue number 297 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post analyses the employment of head coaches in 84 top divisions worldwide between January 2015 and December 2019. During this period, the average number of coaches per club in charge for at least three domestic league matches goes from 9.1 in Bolivia to 2.6 in Sweden. On average, a coach managed 40.6 games.

The data per league represent a fair estimate of the real ones as we only included in the sample the championships for which we could find the complete coaching history for at least half of the clubs concerned. The club rankings only include teams that have always been in the first division during the period considered.

The highest value was recorded for Club Real Potosí. The Bolivian side employed 20 different coaches for at least three domestic league matches between 2015 and 2019. On average, they were in charge for 11.3 games. Only 30 clubs out of the 766 taken into consideration employed a single coach during the five-year period studied. All current big-5 league teams had at least two coaches during this period.

Issue number 296 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post reveals that Lincoln Red Imps from Gibraltar is the current top division team worldwide having won the highest percentage of domestic league matches played between 2015 and 2020 by three or more goals: 49.6%. AFC Ajax is fifth (37.4%), while Paris St-Germain and Barcelona are ninth (35.4%).

At league level, the highest percentage of easy wins was recorded in the top division of Macao (42.5% of total matches), ahead of Tahiti (38.1%) and Estonia (32.6%). The figures for the five major European leagues vary between 18.8% in Germany and 15.5% in Italy. The average for the 151 top divisions analysed is 14.4%.

The greatest percentage of fixtures ended in a tie between 2015 and 2020 was recorded in Gambia (42.1%), while the lowest was observed in Macao (14.9%). Naft Masjed Soleyman from Iran is the current top division team with the highest percentage of draws during the period surveyed (47.4%). Tukums from Latvia is at the opposite end of the table (8.2%).

The CIES Football Observatory just published its 55th Monthly Report. The study analyses the contribution of national associations worldwide from the point of view of the production of professional players. The sample includes 55,865 footballers having played during the 2019 calendar year in 132 top or second division leagues from 93 countries covering all continents.

To produce the ranking, domestic league minutes played by each footballer were weighted according to a coefficient of clubs’ sporting strength, calculated by taking into account the division and results of teams at national level, as well as the results of the representatives of every association in international club competitions. The origin of players was defined as the association where they grew up.

Brazil stands out as the world leader regarding the production of professional footballers. Brazilians are numerous (2,748 in the 132 leagues studied, of which 1,541 are abroad), play a considerable number of minutes (1,203 domestic league minutes per year compared to a general average of 1,133 minutes) and are active in high-level clubs (sporting coefficient of 0.49 compared to an average of 0.37).

France is the second world powerhouse, just ahead of Spain. The French are more numerous than the Spanish in the leagues studied (1,744 as opposed to 1,350), but are less fielded (on average 1,260 minutes against 1,360 in 2019) and play in clubs with a lower level (average sporting coefficient of 0.55 as opposed to 0.63). Argentina ranks fourth outranking two other European countries: England and Germany.

The 295th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post 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. At the top 30 places are 23 Africans 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%).

At club level, the figures vary between 29.8% for Gambia Ports Authority (GPA) and 0.0% for Warrenpoint Town. None of the 167 games played by the Northern Irish team during the period considered ended goalless. The highest percentage for current teams from the five major European leagues was recorded for Angers (23 0-0 out of 191 matches, 12.0%), while the lowest was observed for Cagliari (6 out of 195, 3.1%).

Early professional experience is key to succeed in football. Great discrepancies exist between clubs and leagues in the opportunities given to young players to prove their talent. Issue number 294 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the percentage of minutes played in the current season or the last completed one by U21 footballers from 1,292 clubs and 93 top divisions worldwide.

At league level, the playing time of U21 footballers stretches from 29.0% in the Slovakian Super Liga to only 3.7% in the Saudi Pro League and the Turkish Süper Lig. In South America, the figures vary from 21.2% in Uruguay to 11.0% in the Argentina. The French Ligue 1 is the major European league with the highest percentage of minutes by U21 players (15.0%), while the Spanish Liga is at the opposite end of the table (7.0%).

The highest figures at club level per Confederation were recorded for the reserve team of Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand (93.3%), the Young Lions in Singapore (81.1%), University College Dublin in Ireland (78.0%), Cavalier in Jamaica (58.1%), Universidad San Martín in Peru (56.6%) and NA Hussein Dey in Algeria (40.0%). In the big-5, the highest value was measured for LOSC Lille (32.1%), while four clubs did not field U21 players (Levante, Crystal Palace, Union Berlin and Sheffield United).