| Abstract: |
We investigate the role of fatigue in soccer (football). Although this issue
is important for the "productivity" of players and the optimal organization of
national and international championships, empirical evidence is lacking. We
use data on all the matches played by national teams in all the tournaments of
the FIFA Soccer World Cup (from 1930 to 2010) and the UEFA European Football
Championship (from 1960 to 2012). We relate team performance (in terms of
points gained and goals scored and conceded) to the respective days of rests
that teams have had after their previous match, controlling for several
measures of teams' abilities. Using different estimators we show that, under
the current structure of major international tournaments, there are no
relevant effects of enjoying different days of rest on team performance.
However, we find that before Nineties days of rest had a positive impact on
performance, presumably because athletic preparation of players was less
effective. Furthermore, we show that the advantage of additional rest is quite
relevant, when rest time of one of the opposing teams is three days or less. |