Combing my love of football with data analytics and simulations.

Change in Competitive Balance in the Premier League over successive five-year eras

The competitive balance in the Premier League has long been a topic of discussion. However, there has been little research done on the changing competitive balance within the league.

I took the table of the Premier League over 5 five-year eras and generated a model of competitive balance over these eras using three factors: number of teams within 60 points of the top team over five years, number of teams within 60 points of the fourth- place team over five years, and the spread of points across the league using the square root of the Gini index. I found that competitive balance is decreasing over time. I associated this decrease in competitive balance with an increase in absolute transfer spending and overall spending by Top 6 teams, which has made the effect of money on success more pronounced.

More information at the project can be found here.