The Impact of Scheduling and Match Congestion on Team Performance in Professional Soccer

Abstract

Match congestion, or playing two games within four days, is a common topic of debate amongst soccer fans, players, and coaches. We analyze match results from five seasons of the German Bundesliga to examine whether playing a game under match congestion affects a team’s performance. We find that substantial differences between teams and across seasons. On average we find that a team’s offensive strength is negatively affected, whereas a team’s defensive strength improves for home games under match congestion. A simulation exercise shows that the season’s schedule can have a substantial impact on a team’s outcome for the season, even if the number of games played under match congestion is held constant for each team, i.e., the result is due to which opponent is faced under match congestion. Finally, for the Spanish and English leagues we find similar impacts on defensive strengths, but no impact on offensive strengths.