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Colombia has the most even league worldwide

Issue number 332 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post compares 72 top division leagues worldwide from the perspective of the percentage of matches in which a team won by at least three goals.

The lowest proportion of uneven fixtures was recorded in the Colombian Categoría Primera A: just 5 out of 126 (4.0%).

At the opposite end of the table is the Solomon Islands top division: 41 uneven games out of 110 (37.3%).

For the UEFA member associations surveyed, the percentages vary between 8.8% in the Albanian Superliga and 31.2% for the Moldovian Divizia Națională.

More than one fifth of both the Austrian (23.5%) and German Bundesliga (20.9%) matches ended with at least a three-goal gap between opponent teams. These are much higher percentages than the average measured at the level of the 72 competitions included in the analysis (14.5%).

The Spanish Liga (11.4%) is the only league among the five major European ones where the proportion of uneven fixtures was so far lower than the global average.

The contrary holds true for the French Ligue 1 (15.0%), the English Premier League (17.2%) and the Italian Serie A (17.7%).

The Arabian Gulf League in the United Arab Emirates (22.2%) and the Stars League in Qatar (21.7%) stand also out as particularly uneven competitions.

About the CIES Football Observatory

The CIES Football Observatory is a research group within the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES). Created in 2005 by Dr. Raffaele Poli and Dr. Loïc Ravenel, the CIES Football Observatory currently comprises a staff of four full-time permanent researchers who specialise in the statistical analysis of football. Click here for more information.

About the CIES

The International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) is an independent study centre located in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. It was created in 1995 as a joint venture between the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the University of Neuchâtel, the City and State of Neuchatel. Click here for more information. Click here for more information.

CIES – Centre International d’Étude du Sport
Avenue DuPeyrou 1, 2000 Neuchâtel
Switzerland
Phone +41 32 718 39 00 - Fax +41 32 718 39 01
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