Dataset Information

Playing in the UEFA Europa League Does Not Adversely Affect English Premier League or La Liga Performance.

ABSTRACT: This article presents data challenging the widely held but untested view that concurrently playing mid-week Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Europa League matches adversely affects domestic league performance. Over 16 seasons we compared next-season domestic league performance of the two highest finishing UEFA Europa League qualifying clubs with the two highest finishing non-qualifiers in England and Spain. Clubs concurrently playing UEFA Europa League football showed significantly superior domestic league performance including wins, losses, goals, goal difference and points tally. The number of European matches played was not related to domestic league performance. The absence of prior rigorous analysis including appropriate comparison data has led to the proliferation of a widespread confirmatory bias, defined as the tendency to seek out evidence that backs one's hunches and to ignore evidence that contradicts them. Based on our evidence, football professionals, journalists, pundits, and fans should consider the UEFA Europa League competition more favorably.

SUBMITTER: Stephens R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7739226 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Playing in the UEFA Europa League Does Not Adversely Affect English Premier League or La Liga Performance.

Stephens Richard R Bosworth Grant G Shepherd Thomas A TA

Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology 20181222 1

<h4>Purpose</h4>This article presents data challenging the widely held but untested view that concurrently playing mid-week Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Europa League matches adversely affects domestic league performance.<h4>Method</h4>Over 16 seasons we compared next-season domestic league performance of the two highest finishing UEFA Europa League qualifying clubs with the two highest finishing non-qualifiers in England and Spain.<h4>Results</h4>Clubs concurrently playing UEF ...[more]

PMID: 33467317

Similar Datasets

Project description:To evaluate the extent and characteristics of COVID-19 cases in relation to environmental COVID-19 incidences in the four best European soccer leagues (Bundesliga, Premier League, Serie A and La Liga) from the first of January 2020 until the end of January 2022. Methods: A retrospective evaluation of all publicly available COVID-19 cases in the studied cohorts was performed. The 14-day case incidences from epidemiological national data were used as reference values. The leagues studied are the Bundesliga (Germany), Premier League (Great Britain), Serie A (Italy) and La Liga (Spain). For all cases, the duration of time loss and date of case notification were recorded. Results: League-specific mean time loss due to disease or quarantine per COVID-19 case differs significantly between La Liga (11.45; ±5.21 days) and the other leagues studied (Bundesliga 20.41; ±33.87; p 0.0242; Premier League 17.12; ±10.39; p 0.0001; Serie A 17.61; ±12.71; p < 0.0001). A positive correlation between 14-day national incidence with COVID-19 disease occurrence in soccer leagues was found for all leagues studied. The correlations were strong in the Bundesliga (r 0.5911; CI 0.4249-0.7187; p < 0.0001), Serie A (r 0.5979; CI 0.4336-0.7238; p < 0.0001) and La Liga (r 0.5251; CI 0.3432-0.6690; p < 0.0001). A moderate correlation was found for the Premier League (r 0.3308; CI 0.1147-0.5169; p 0.0026). Odds ratios for altered environmental case risk in the cohorts studied could be calculated for four different national COVID-19 incidence levels (<50/100.000 to >500/100.000). A trend towards shorter COVID-19 case duration in the second half of 2021 was shown for all leagues studied. Conclusions: There was a significantly lower mean time-loss caused by a COVID-19 infection for cases occurred in La Liga compared with the other three leagues studied. For all four leagues studied, a positive, significant correlation of national environmental COVID-19 incidence level and the incidence of COVID-19 cases in the cohort of a football league was found.

Dataset Information

Playing in the UEFA Europa League Does Not Adversely Affect English Premier League or La Liga Performance.

Publications

Playing in the UEFA Europa League Does Not Adversely Affect English Premier League or La Liga Performance.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets