EURO 2024 Copenhagen
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2319. Comparison of Football Leagues Using the Sum of Ranking Differences

Invited abstract in session TB-16: Ranking in sports, stream OR in Sports.

Tuesday, 10:30-12:00
Room: 19 (building: 116)

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Balázs R. Sziklai
Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Abstract

The aim of the study is to demonstrate a new non-parametric statistical procedure, the Sum of Ranking Differences (SRD), through an example taken from sports. The method was introduced by Héberger (2010) and is becoming increasingly popular in various fields of applied sciences. With this procedure, solutions or methods can be compared through a reference. In our study, we analyze the similarities and differences in the style of play of four major European football leagues (La Liga, Bundesliga, Premier League, and Serie A). First, we characterize the leagues based on the teams' statistical attributes featured in the games. We assess the importance of game elements such as goals scored and conceded, ball possession, successful passes, etc., by examining how closely teams are ranked by each element in comparison to their final standings on the scoreboard. Essentially, this is an SRD calculation where the teams' final scores in the league serve as the reference. Aggregating the results for the leagues, we obtain a data table that can be subjected to yet another SRD analysis. By setting any league as a reference, we can measure how much the playing style of a particular league differs from the others.

Keywords

Status: accepted

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