Red Cards: Not Such Bad News For Penalized Guest Teams

Mechtel, Mario; Brändle, Tobias; Bäker, Agnes; Vetter, Karin

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1571867

Red Cards: Not Such Bad News For Penalized Guest Teams

24 Pages Posted: 25 Mar 2010 Last revised: 20 Mar 2012

See all articles by Mario Mechtel

Tobias Brändle

University of Tuebingen; Institute for Applied Economic Research (IAW)

Karin Vetter

University of Tuebingen

Date Written: March 15, 2010

Abstract

A popular soccer myth states that teams affected by a sending-off perform better than they would have performed without the penalty. Based on economic theory, we analyze the course of soccer matches using data from the German Bundesliga from 1999 to 2009. The results show that sending-offs affecting home teams have a negative impact on their performance. However, for guest teams the impact of a sending-off on their performance depends on the time remaining after the sending-off. Thus, the "ten do it better" myth seems to hold for guest teams to a certain extent.

Keywords: soccer, team performance, red card, sending-off, Bundesliga

JEL Classification: L83, M50, M12, J01

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Mechtel, Mario and Brändle, Tobias and Bäker, Agnes and Vetter, Karin, Red Cards: Not Such Bad News For Penalized Guest Teams (March 15, 2010). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1571867 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1571867