“DFL Sport Report”: Bundesliga is the highest-scoring, youngest and best-attended of the top European leagues
22 February 2019 – Today, Friday, the DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga published the new “DFL Sport Report” for the first time. It contains current data and key figures for evaluating the sporting performance of the Bundesliga. The “DFL Sport Report” supplements the “2019 DFL Economic Report”, which describes the economic development of the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2.
Compared with the other four top European leagues, the Bundesliga has the highest-scoring matches: Spectators in Germany get to enjoy an average of 3.1 goals per game. This puts the Bundesliga ahead of the English Premier League (2.8), La Liga in Spain (2.5), Italy’s Serie A (2.6) and Ligue 1 in France (2.5). As well as plenty of goals, the Bundesliga offers attractive, high-tempo football: With 27 shots per game, more chances are created than in England, Spain or France. The low number of fouls and bookings keeps matches flowing: 23.9 fouls and 3.6 yellow cards per match represent the second-lowest average in each case, while the Bundesliga has the lowest number of red cards among all five top leagues.
The Bundesliga table makes for exciting reading after 22 matchdays: Unlike in Spain, Italy and France, where the reigning champions have already raced ahead of the competition again, last season’s champion is not currently on top of the table in Germany. A gap of three points between first and second place promises a tight race for the title – something only England can offer among the other leagues. The Bundesliga is a balanced league on the whole, with just four points between tenth place and a Europa League qualification spot. By contrast, there is a gap of eleven points between the sixth- and seventh-placed teams in the Premier League.
The Bundesliga has the youngest player squads of the top European leagues: The average age of players on the field is 26.2. This is also due to the integration of under-21 players, who account for 14.4 per cent of the total playing time in the Bundesliga – twice as high as the equivalent figure for the Premier League, beaten only by Ligue 1, at 16.0 per cent. Bundesliga clubs use home-grown players for 14.5 per cent of the total playing time, with only La Liga coming in higher (16.2 per cent). The successful academy concept for the in-house training of talented young players is also underlined by the high proportion of domestic players in the German top flight: 57.8 per cent of professional players in the Bundesliga were trained in Germany. Almost half of the playing time in the Bundesliga is attributable to German players (48.7 per cent) compared with 39.5 per cent for Italian players in Serie A and 32.6 per cent for English players in the Premier League.
The Bundesliga is also a league for internationals: In terms of total playing time, 49.8 per cent of Bundesliga players are members of the A squads of their respective countries. Only the Premier League comes in higher at 60.0 per cent. The lowest figures are found in La Liga (35.4 per cent) and Ligue 1 (34.1 per cent).
At a European level, Bundesliga clubs have already accrued 13.929 points* towards the UEFA ranking that is used to determine the number of Champions League and Europa League places allocated to each country. The Spanish and English clubs currently have more points, but the Bundesliga has closed the gap on Italy in third place and kept France at bay in fifth.
The sporting attractiveness of the Bundesliga is also one of the reasons why the German top flight is the world’s best-attended football league: In the first half of the current 2018-19 season, an average of 42,217 tickets were sold per match, around 4,000 more than the Premier League. Demand for tickets in all of the other top leagues is below 30,000 per match.
The data of the “DFL Sport Report” is as of 20 February, following the end of the 22nd matchday of the 2018-19 Bundesliga season. To this date there had been 26 matchdays in the Premier League, 24 in La Liga, 24 in Serie A and 25 in Ligue 1. All comparisons between the top five European leagues are based on Opta data, which is collected according to the same standards in every league. It also includes the official Bundesliga match data collected by the DFL subsidiary Sportec Solutions.