LONDON: The International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES), the independent, research and education organization that focusses on statistical studies of football-related issues based out of Switzerland, has claimed in its new study that the UEFA Champions League ranks third amongst all European competitions when it comes to producing one-sided matches.
CIES has presented percentage of matches ended with a three-goal gap or over for 31 top division European leagues, that has exposed the major gap of quality and wealth amongst teams in the continent.
From the group stage up until now, the goal gap for more than a fifth of Champions League matches was at least three (21%). This is the third highest figure among competitions surveyed after those recorded in the Cypriot (22.5%) and Austrian (21.5%) top divisions. However, the value measured in the Europa League is particularly low (13.5%).
The big leagues are also in the first half of the most unbalanced competitions such as the German Bundesliga (16.7%), Premier League (17.7%) and France’s Ligue 1 (17.9%). The study suggested that to re-balance competitions, the only solution would be to improve the distribution of financial (TV rights) and human (transfer market) resources at both national and international levels.
