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Do match officials give preferential treatment to the strongest football teams? An analysis of four top European clubs
Journal
Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports
ISSN
1559-0410
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2018-09-06
Author(s)
Abstract
We address the fiercely debated question of whether the strongest European football clubs get special, preferential treatment from match officials in their decisions on the teams' players over the course of the teams' trophy winning streaks. To give an empirical answer to this question, we apply a rigorous econometric analysis for causal effect estimation to a self-constructed data set. We consider the two clubs in the Italian Serie A that experienced a prolonged winning streak during the period 2006 to 2016, namely Internazionale Milan (Inter) and Juventus Turin, as well as one team from the German Bundesliga (Borussia Dortmund) and one from the English Premier League (Manchester United) that also experienced a winning streak during the same period. This allows us to perform an analysis with enough statistical power to be able to estimate properly the effect of interest. The general opinion among fans, sports journalists, and insiders that the strongest clubs are favored by match officials' decisions is supported only by the results of the analysis we run for Juventus, whereas for the other clubs under investigation, we did not find any significant bias. During its winning streak, more yellow cards and total booking points (an aggregated measure of yellow and red cards) were given to Juventus opponents. These effects are not only statistically significant, but also have a sizeable impact.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to practical use / society
HSG Profile Area
SEPS - Quantitative Economic Methods
Refereed
Yes
Volume
14
Number
4
Start page
185
End page
199
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Contact Email Address
francesco.audrino@unisg.ch
Eprints ID
254943