Title: Determinants of national men's football team performance: a focus on goal difference between teams

Authors: Nicolas Scelles; Wladimir Andreff

Addresses: Sport Policy Unit, Manchester Metropolitan University, Business School, All Saints Campus, Manchester, M15 6BH, UK ' Observatoire de l'Economie du Sport, Ministère des Sports, 95 avenue de France, 75650 Paris Cedex 13, France

Abstract: In the literature, several articles have focused on the socioeconomic and sporting determinants of national men's football team performance measured through FIFA points. In the present paper, knowledge improvement comes from focusing on goal difference in individual games. The main objectives are to verify that game outcomes have some determinants similar to FIFA points but also game specific variables (home advantage and sporting prizes). The methodology is based on regressions including all games over the 2011–2013 period (2,584 observations). The results confirm that game outcomes have some determinants similar to FIFA points but also game specific variables.

Keywords: international men's football; team performance; socioeconomic determinants; sporting determinants; game determinants; goal difference; home advantage; sporting prizes; FIFA points; policy implications.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2019.104168

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2019 Vol.19 No.5/6, pp.407 - 424

Accepted: 30 Mar 2019
Published online: 20 Dec 2019 *

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