Hidden power law patterns in the top European football leagues

Sergio, Da Silva and Raul, Matsushita and Eliza, Silveira (2013): Hidden power law patterns in the top European football leagues.

Abstract

Because sports are stylized combat, sports may follow power laws similar to those found for wars, individual clashes, and acts of terrorism. We show this fact for football (soccer) by adjusting power laws that show a close relationship between rank and points won by the clubs participating in the latest seasons of the top fifteen European football leagues. In addition, we use Shannon entropy for gauging league competitive balance. As a result, we are able to rank the leagues according to competitiveness.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Power laws; Wars; Sports; Terrorism; Football; Soccer
• Subjects: Y - Miscellaneous Categories > Y8 - Related Disciplines > Y80 - Related Disciplines

References

[1] S. Pinker, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, Penguin Books, New York, 2002.

[2] J.A. Mangan, Making European Masculinities: Sport, Europe, Gender, Frank Cass Publishers, London, 2000.

[3] A.M. Petersen, W.S. Jung, H.E. Stanley, Europhysics Letters 83 (2008) 50010.

[4] E. Ben-Naim, N.W. Hengartner, S. Redner, F. Vazquez, Journal of Statistical Physics 151 (2013) 458.

[5] L.F. Richardson, Journal of the American Statistical Association 43 (1948) 523.

[6] J.C. Bohorquez, S. Gourley, A.R. Dixon, M. Spagat, N.F. Johnson, Nature 462 (2009) 911.

[7] A. Clauset, M. Young, K.S. Gleditsch, Journal of Conflict Resolution 51 (2007) 58.

[8] N. Johnson, S. Carran, J. Botner, K. Fontaine, N. Laxague, P. Nuetzel, J. Turnley, B. Tivnan, Science 333 (2011) 81.

[9] A.M. Petersen, H.E. Stanley, S. Succi, Scientific Reports 1 (2011) 1.

[10] R. Matsushita, A. Figueiredo, S. Da Silva, Physica A 391 (2012) 4891.