Brazil, Bolivia, and Uruguayโthe three countries have one thing in common, all located in South America. A recent statistic of club football says that most fouls, yellow cards and red cards occur in the leagues of these three countries. However, the top five leagues in terms of organization, money and popularity, Spain’s La Liga is number 1.
These data have come out in the report of CIES Football Observatory, a research institute based in Switzerland.
CIES analyzed data from 71 leagues around the world last year to calculate fouls, cards and added time. Among Europe’s top five leagues, La Liga has 5 yellow cards per match. The average foul in this league was 25.65. In total, referees had to show an average of 0.31 red cards per match. Among the five leagues, La Liga has the highest number of yellow and red cards and fouls.
Added time has also increased in La Liga due to more incidents of indiscipline. The average added time in 411 matches counted in Spain’s top league was 9 minutes 45 seconds. That is, the length of each match in La Liga has increased to about 100 minutes. Among the top five leagues in Europe, the league ranks second in the number of fouls. 24.90 fouls per match in the French league. But yellow cards are rarer than foulsโ3.65 (lowest among five leagues). An average of 0.24 red cards have been shown in this league.
Italy’s Serie A, which ranks third on the list, averages 4.62 yellow cards, 0.22 red cards and 23.93 fouls. The average added time in this league was 8 minutes 37 seconds. In Germany’s Bundesliga, however, added time is even higherโ9 minutes and 12 seconds per match. Here the average yellow card is 4.42, red card is 0.16 and foul is 23.08.
The Premier League has the lowest number of fouls and red cards among the top five leagues. England’s league averages 22.12 fouls with 0.15 red cards shown. However, in one place, the Premier League is quite high. Here is 11 minutes of added time per match. Which means, every match in the Premier League was 101 minutes long.
Of the 71 leagues in total, the most added time was the Qatar Star League at 13 minutes and 49 seconds. The league with the second highest added time of 13 minutes 48 seconds is also in the Middle EastโSaudi Arabia’s Pro League. From this side, the least 5 minutes and 58 seconds were added in Slovakia’s Super League.
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Brazil’s second highest competition, Serie B, has the highest number of fouls. There are 30.34 fouls per match. The Bolivian League is number 1 in the number of red cards. The country’s Premier Division has a red card rate of 0.61 per match. That means at least three red cards every five matches. Yellow card ahead again Uruguay. 6.07 yellow cards were shown per match in the Campenato Urugayo league.
Although Latin American countries are in the highest category, Asia has more presence in the lowest category. Japan’s J-Two League has seen the fewest yellow and red cards. Yellow 2.73 and red 0.10. In Japan’s top tier J-One League, yellow cards average 2.82, red cards 0.13. Of the 71 leagues analysed, none other than Japan had an average number of yellow cards below 3. As the number of cards may suggest, fouls may be less in Japan. But the picture is not like that. The J-Two league has 23.08 fouls, 16 other leagues with fewer fouls.
