Factors influencing competitive balance across European football top tier leagues

The study aims to examine the factors impacting the competitive balance (CB) in 22 of Europe’s top-tier football leagues from 2004 to 2021. Three types of influence factors are selected: financial, economic, and sportive. The dataset has a total of 374 observations, comprising 22 countries over 17 seasons. Competitive Balance is measure by three indicators for robustness check. Six Ordinary Least Squares regression models are carried out. Our outputs evidence that play-offs for relegation, average age, talent concentration, and standard deviation of team values showed negative effect while number of teams in the league, Elo rank, local currency to Euro rate, and Gini index have positive effect. The best level of balance is achieved with a percentage of relegated of 20.9%. Our study explains the change in CB in terms of tournament format, financial indicators, and a wide range of economic variables that have not previously been presented. The empirical results offered here may be useful for UEFA and domestic league organizers in order to improve the competitive level in the European football.