With the gap between the rich and the poor continuing to grow in Europe's top football (soccer) leagues, rival fans often debate the extent to which the untold wealth that some clubs possess has the power to decide the outcome of league seasons. It's clear that the variance in financial resources within leagues is a factor in deciding league outcomes, but just how important is it?
I've put together an analysis looking to answer that question, using Bayesian multilevel regression to measure the effect of club resources on total league points across seven European leagues and ten seasons (2012/13 - 2021/22). The seven European leagues that make up the dataset are generally regarded as the highest standard and (rather conveniently) richest leagues on the continent:
- Premier League (England)
- La Liga (Spain)
- Bundesliga (Germany)
- Serie A (Italy)
- Ligue 1 (France)
- Eredivisie (Netherlands)
- Primeira Liga (Portugal)
This repository and all of its contents are licensed under the MIT license.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me by email or on Twitter.