On-pitch success in UEFA Champions League : an empirical analysis of economic, demographic and traditional factors

Abstract: This paper’s aim is to discover the impact of economical, demographic and traditional determinants on clubs’ on-pitch success in UEFA Champions League. Generally it is assumed by people that financially strong clubs tend to win on the pitch most of the time. Is it really true? Is it always the same wealthy teams which win in the end? Football is a type of entertainment and people would like to see games with uncertain outcomes and a balanced competitiveness between two sides. In this way they can enjoy this entertainment. In that case, how uncertain is the outcome and how balanced is the competition in UEFA Champions League? In order to answer all these questions a multiple regression analysis is built including economic, demographic and traditional variables both at club and country level. These mentioned explanatory variables are GDP per capita of the home country, population of the host city, total market value of the team’s players, capacity of the stadium, country’s participation in international tournaments, club’s age, rank of the next best team from the same country and country’s hosting an international tournament. It turned out that financially advantageous clubs which have stadiums with larger capacities and located in more populated cities have more chances of winning than the others. Then again, it is observed that countries’ football tradition and dedication does not have a significant impact on clubs’ on-pitch success in UEFA Champions League.