COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF COMPETITIVE BALANCE OF MLS, PREMIER LEAGUE AND JELEN SUPER LEAGUE IN FOOTBALL FROM 2001 TO 2013
Keywords:
football (soccer), balance, competitionAbstract
The importance of competitive balance as a factor that contributes to the quality of one sports league is reflected in the uncertainty of the competition. Matches whose outcome is known in advance do not attract the attention of fans or media, making the event loses its fundamental meaning. In the USA and Europe, there are different approaches of competitive balance problem solving. The aim of this study was to compare the competitive balance of Jelen Super League of Serbia, England Premier League and the US MLS Football League. The research was conducted in a 12 seasons period. Competitive balance is calculated using the RSD and HHI index. RSD results showed that the most even is a MLS, then follows England Premier League, while the most uneven is Jelen Super League. By calculating the HHI are confirmed investigative RSD‘s findings. The minimum value of the HHI index was recorded in MLS and is 2.125. In England Premier League this index is 5.167, and in the Jelen Super League is 7.500. MLS is the most even thanks to mechanisms whose goal is to achieve and maintain competitive balance. Thanks to these mechanisms quality of MLS is growing from season to season. In England Premier League, there are small number of quality teams who are fighting for the championship title, while in Serbia that number is reduced to two clubs. Thus, Red Star and Partizan for years stand out quality compared to other clubs in Serbia. In Serbia, just like in the former Yugoslavia, all these segments that equalize the competitive balance, excluding competition system that works on the principles of the highest quality league in Europe, are not sufficiently high standard to allow their impact establishing a system of rules and regulations that will improve the quality of the competition.
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