Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Does playing several competitions influence a team’s league performance? Evidence from Spanish professional football

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Central European Journal of Operations Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The sporting performance of professional football teams has often been assessed considering their results in the major regular competition, namely the national league. Here, we show that evaluating league performance without controlling for extra games played in other competitions might produce misleading results. Using Data Envelopment Analysis, we assess the performance of Spanish professional football teams in the League controlling for the extra games played in the King’s Cup, Champions League and UEFA Cup. Results show that assessing performance omitting extra games underestimates teams’ true performance in the League, the more extra games played leading to greater bias. Consequently, the multioutput nature of football must be considered when assessing team performance.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ascari G, Gagnepain P (2006) Spanish football. J Sports Econ 7: 76–89

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Audas R, Dobson S, Goddard J (2002) The impact of managerial change on team performance in professional sports. J Econ Bus 54: 633–650

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banker RD, Charnes A, Cooper WW (1984) Some models for estimating technical and scale inefficiencies in data envelopment analysis. Manag Sci 30: 1078–1092

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barros CP, Leach S (2006) Performance evaluation of the english premier football league with data envelopment analysis. Appl Econ 38: 1449–1458

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barros CP, Leach S (2007) Technical efficiency in the english football association premier league with a stochastic cost frontier. Appl Econ Lett 14: 731–741

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barros CP, García del Barrio P (2008) Efficiency measurement of the english football premier league with a random frontier model. Econ Model 25: 994–1002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boscá JE, Liern V, Martínez A, Sala R (2008) The Spanish football crisis. Eur Sport Manag Quart 8: 165–177

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boscá JE, Liern V, Martínez A, Sala R (2009) Increasing offensive or defensive efficiency? an analysis of Italian and Spanish football. Omega 37: 63–78

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carmichael F, Thomas D, Ward R (2000) Team performance: the case of english premiership soccer. Manag Decis Econ 21: 31–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Charnes A, Cooper WW, Rhodes E (1978) Measuring the efficiency of decision making units. Eur J Oper Res 2: 429–444

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Charnes A, Clark CT, Cooper WW, Golany B (1985) A developmental study of data envelopment analysis in measuring the efficiency of maintenance units in the US air forces. Ann Oper Res 2: 95–112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cooper WW, Seiford L, Tone K (2007) Data envelopment analysis: a comprehensive text with models, applications, references and DEA-Solver software. Springer, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawson P, Dobson S, Gerrad B (2000a) Estimating coaching efficiency in professional team sports: evidence from English association football. Scott J Politi Econ 47: 399–421

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dawson P, Dobson S, Gerrad B (2000b) Stochastic frontiers and the temporal structure of managerial efficiency in English soccer. J Sports Econ 1: 341–362

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dawson P, Dobson S (2002) Managerial efficiency and human capital: an application to english association football. Manag Decis Econ 23: 471–486

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deloitte (2008a) Annual review of football finance. UK

  • Deloitte (2008b) Football money league. The reign in Spain. UK

  • Dobson SM, Goddard JA (1998) Performance and revenue in professional league football: evidence from granger causality tests. Appl Econ 30: 1641–1651

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emrouznejad A, Parker BR, Tavares G (2008) Evaluation of research in efficiency and productivity: A survey and analysis of the first 30 years of scholarly literature in DEA. Socio-Econ Planning Sci 42: 151–157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Espitia-Escuer M, García-Cebrián LI (2004) Measuring the efficiency of Spanish first-division soccer teams. J Sports Econ 5: 329–346

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Espitia-Escuer M, García-Cebrián LI (2006) Performance in sports teams. Results and potential in the professional soccer league in Spain. Manag Decis 44: 1020–1030

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Espitia-Escuer M, García-Cebrián LI (2008) Measuring the productivity of Spanish first division soccer teams. Eur Sport Manag Quart 8: 229–246

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fizel JL, D’Itri MP (1996) Estimating managerial efficiency: the case of college basketball coaches. J Sport Manag 10: 435–445

    Google Scholar 

  • Fizel JL, D’Itri MP (1997) Managerial efficiency, managerial succession and organizational performance. Manag Decis Econ 18: 295–308

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forrest D, Simmons R (2002) Team salaries and playing success in sports: a comparative perspective. Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft 62: 221–237

    Google Scholar 

  • Forrest D, Simmons R (2004) Buying success: team performance and wage bills in U.S. and European sports leagues. In: Fort R, Fizel J (eds) International sports economics comparisons. Praeger, Westport, pp 123–140

    Google Scholar 

  • García-Sánchez IM (2007) Efficiency and effectiveness of Spanish football teams: a three-stage-DEA approach. Central Eur J Oper Res 15: 21–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • González-Gómez F, Picazo-Tadeo AJ (2009) Can we be satisfied with our football team? evidence from Spanish professional football. J Sports Econ. doi:10.1177/1527002509341020

  • Guzmán I, Morrow S (2007) Measuring efficiency and productivity in professional football teams: evidence from the english premier League. Central Eur J Oper Res 15: 309–328

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haas DJ (2003a) Technical efficiency in major league soccer. J Sports Econ 4: 203–215

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haas DJ (2003b) Productive efficiency of English football teams: a data envelopment approach. Manag Decis Econ 24: 403–410

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haas DJ, Kocher MG, Sutter M (2004) Measuring efficiency of German football teams by data envelopment analysis. Central Eur J Oper Res 12: 251–268

    Google Scholar 

  • Hadley L, Poitras M, Ruggiero J, Knowles S (2000) Performance evaluation of national football league teams. Manag Decis Econ 21: 63–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall S, Szymanski S, Zimbalist A (2002) Testing causality between team performance and payroll: the cases of major league baseball and English Soccer. J Sports Econ 3: 149–168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hofler RA, Payne JE (1997) Measuring efficiency in the national basketball association. Econ Lett 55: 293–299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hofler RA, Payne JE (2006) Efficiency in the national basketball association: a stochastic frontier approach with panel data. Manag Decis Econ 27: 279–285

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahane LH (2005) Production efficiency and discriminatory hiring practices in the national hockey league: a stochastic frontier approach. Rev Ind Organ 27: 47–71

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Késenne S (2000) The impact of salary caps in professional team sports. Scott J Politi Econ 47: 422–430

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee YH, Berri D (2008) A re-examination of production functions and efficiency estimates for the national basketball association. Scott J Politi Econ 55: 51–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porter P, Scully GW (1982) Measuring managerial efficiency: the case of baseball. South Econ J 48: 642–650

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rottenberg S (1956) The baseball player’s labor-market. J Politi Econ 64: 242–258

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scully GW (1974) Pay and performance in major league baseball. Am Econ Rev 64: 915–930

    Google Scholar 

  • Scully GW (1994) Managerial efficiency and survivability in professional team sports. Manag Decis Econ 15: 403–411

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shephard RW (1970) Theory of cost and production functions. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Sueyoshi T, Ohnishi K, Kinasi Y (1999) A benchmark approach for baseball evaluation. Eur J Oper Res 15: 429–448

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Szymanski S, Smith R (1997) The English football industry: profit, performance and industrial structure. Int Rev Appl Econ 11: 135–153

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Torgler B, Schmidt SL (2007) What shapes player performance in soccer? empirical findings from a panel analysis. Appl Econ 39: 2355–2369

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zak TA, Huang CJ, Siegfried JJ (1979) Production efficiency: the case of professional basketball. J Bus 52: 379–392

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Economía Aplicada II, Facultad de Economía, Universidad de Valencia, Avda de los Naranjos s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain

    Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo

  2. Departamento de Economía Aplicada, Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociología, Universidad de Granada, C/ Rector López Argüeta s/n, 18071, Granada, Spain

    Francisco González-Gómez

Authors
  1. Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Francisco González-Gómez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Francisco González-Gómez.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Picazo-Tadeo, A.J., González-Gómez, F. Does playing several competitions influence a team’s league performance? Evidence from Spanish professional football. Cent Eur J Oper Res 18, 413–432 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10100-009-0117-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10100-009-0117-z

Keywords

JEL Classification

Search

Navigation