Correlation Analysis between Soccer Game World Ranking and Player League Distribution

Abstract

Nowadays professional soccer player trading between clubs/leagues is very common. Soccer players could be employed in foreign clubs/leagues, but when international competitive events come, the elite players are recruited to compose a national team. One can expect that the higher ranking of a national team, the more players are employed by the top soccer leagues. However, the relationship between the two issues has never been studied early. In the study, seven national soccer teams were selected from a list of the world top 35 soccer teams of year 2010[created by the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA)]. The 7 teams are Spain, England, Argentina, Germany, USA, Ghana and Sweden, across the full range of the list, thus, representing different levels of the world. On basis of the position of the 7 teams in the world ranking, an order ranking for the 7 teams was created. To identify player distribution of the 7 teams in different quality/level of soccer leagues, a league ranking including the top 25 soccer leagues in the world created by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) was used. For each of the 7 teams, its player distribution in different soccer leagues was classified. On basis of the league ranking and the number of player(s) of each team in different leagues, calculated team point was calculated for each team. According to the amount of the calculated point, a calculated team ranking was obtained. Correlation analysis was performed between the two rankings: the order ranking and the calculated team ranking. The results showed a high and positive correlation between the two variables. We concluded that the more players are employed in higher ranking leagues the higher world ranking of a national team.