Statistical evaluation of football performance depending on the socio-economic development of countries

Abstract

This article considers the dependence of football results from the level of socio-economic development. The variables included in this correlation analysis were the official men's FIFA ranking, as an indicator of nation's football results, and other globally accepted rating systems such as the human development, life expectancy, income, and education indexes, which are all regarded as indicators of socio-economic development. The authors determined the pair and partial correlation coefficients of the selected variables, and the statistical significance of the coefficients were assessed using the Student's t-test and Fisher transformation. Multiple correlation was used to determine the dependency level between a country's on-pitch results and its socio-economic development level. The outcomes show the official FIFA ranking is a poor indicator of a country's level of football development.