The manner in which people live and practice football throughout the world is a good indicator of country-specific features. This Monthly Report compares 87 top divisions worldwide from the point of view of the number of yellow and red cards given by referees during matches played between the 2015/16 (or 2016) and 2019/20 (or 2020) seasons.

This 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 (national/expatriate). The Report also presents the rankings of the most represented origins among expatriate coaches.

The 55th Monthly Report of the CIES Football Observatory analyses the contribution of national associations worldwide from the point of view of the production of professional players. Independently of the modalities of calculation, Brazil emerges as the principle worldwide power. France and Spain complete the podium.

The 54th Monthly Report analyses the career paths of players present in March 2020 in the five major European leagues. The study focuses on the last club where the footballers played before making their debut in the big-5. It identifies clubs and countries that act as a stepping-stone for players to access the world’s wealthiest and most competitive championships.

Since 2010, the CIES Football Observatory has been at the forefront of pioneering work in developing a scientific method to estimate the transfer values of footballers based on sums previously paid for players with similar characteristics. This report goes through the variables included in the statistical model developed, reveals the predictive power of the latter and presents several applications of the approach put into place.

This Monthly Report analyses the technical performance data collected by our partners OptaPro for the 2019 regular season of the Major League Soccer (MLS) of the United States and Canada. The study shows that the style of football played in the MLS differs from that of the five major European leagues in two principal aspects: the pressing on opponents and the aerial game.