Latest soccer articles

We collected data on 877 different managerial spells, and 18,260 leagues games, in the top five European football countries during 2010-20. Our aim was to observe how different nationalities are represented in various leagues when it comes to managers. Key findings: The Premier League has the lowest representation of domestic managerial talent with English managers managing only 27% of all league games during 2010-20. Serie A is the opposite spectrum with Italian manager[…]

We collected data on 815 different managerial spells in the top five major European Football leagues from the last decade. Our aim was to understand how various top leagues behave when it comes to hiring and sacking of team managers/coaches. Key Findings: The average Serie A manager is not expected to last an entire season with an average of 35.1 league games. During the past decade, a total of 44 managerial spells in Serie A have lasted less than 10 league games. Premie[…]

We analyzed referees’ performances in 1283 games from the top four European football leagues in 2019-20 to bring you these findings. Key Findings: Home-team advantage has disappeared from refereeing decisions since leagues have restarted. The number of fouls per game has remained consistent to pre-COVID matches, and while yellow cards for home teams has also stayed consistent, the average number of yellow cards per game awarded to away sides has decreased 20.2% fro[…]

RunRepeat, in partnership with The Professional Footballers' Association, has analyzed 2,073 statements from commentators in 80 soccer matches from the 2019/20 season. This is the first time a study of this kind has been conducted to understand if there is a difference in the way the soccer media talks about players of different skin color. The comments discussed 643 unique players of various races and skin tones. Key findings The findings show bias from commentators who[…]

We, at RunRepeat, looked at the results of 18,260 games from the last 10 seasons of the top 5 European soccer leagues – Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 - to bring you some answers. Key Findings: La Liga and Premier League have been responsible for producing the most exciting title races in the last decade. 4 of the last 10 title races in both leagues have been decided on the final match-day. The average gap between the champions and the run[…]

There’s been a narrative around Jose Mourinho for years now -- the tricky third season. It feels like he repeats the same pattern at every club he goes to. Season 1: Improve the team and win the league or challenge for the titleSeason 2: Win the league and challenge in EuropeSeason 3: Implode But is this actually true? What does the data tell us? Well… it turns out after analyzing the results of all of Jose Mourinho’s 909 competitive matches as a manag[…]

We set out to find the city with the most football stardust in their water. The short answer, it's the one on the river Seine. However, we stumbled on some intruiging results on a national level as well. In the last two decades France have graced the football masses with more talent at the World Cup than any other country. We are not even counting the 1998 triumph on home soil. 52 representatives at the 2018 FIFA World Cup were born in France This French expansion can be[…]