La influencia de la densidad competitiva en el resultado de los equipos en el fútbol de alto nivel

Zusammenfassung

There is a considerable variation in the number of matches played per season by clubs in the Spanish Soccer. The successful top clubs play several matches a week in domestic leagues as well as in the UEFA Champions League. It has been speculated that a period full of matches can lead to player fatigue which may result in underperformance. Using data from 374 matches of the Spanish Soccer League played from the 2003-04 to the 2006-07 seasons and according to the estimation based on logit multinomial this study shows that Spanish Champions League teams did not perform below their normal standard at the weekend when they played a Champions League match in the same week. However, playing a Champions League match in the knockout stages increased the probability of losing vs winnig in the matches of the Spanish Soccer League compared with playing a Champions League match in the group stage.