Some researchers consider soccer matches as the stylization of a war in other battlefields. Suchan approach has largely been used to interpret the violent phenomena related to the soccerenvironment, while less attention has been paid to the potential role of political and economicinteractions between countries in determining the aggressive attitude of players on the pitch.In our paper we empirically investigate whether and how political hostility among countriesreverberates on a soccer pitch by influencing players’ aggressiveness. The analysis focuses onofficial matches played by national teams in the final phases of the European and World Cuptournaments since 2000. We estimate a negative binomial regression including both political andsport variables, and we find that (a) commercial hostility, (b) the level of diplomatic relationships,(c) power asymmetry and (d) education gap between countries are positively and significantlyassociated with aggressiveness of the players on the pitch, approximated by the number of yellowand red cards. That is, briefly stated, international hostility reverberates onto the pitch. Moreover,sport covariates present the expected signs, namely, results show that the closeness of the teams,their ranking and the stage of the game (knockout stages with respect to the group phases) arealso crucial in determining the cautions.[...]

International hostility and aggressiveness on the soccer pitch: Evidence from European Championships and World Cups for the period 2000–2012

DI DOMIZIO, Marco;
2013-01-01

Abstract

Some researchers consider soccer matches as the stylization of a war in other battlefields. Suchan approach has largely been used to interpret the violent phenomena related to the soccerenvironment, while less attention has been paid to the potential role of political and economicinteractions between countries in determining the aggressive attitude of players on the pitch.In our paper we empirically investigate whether and how political hostility among countriesreverberates on a soccer pitch by influencing players’ aggressiveness. The analysis focuses onofficial matches played by national teams in the final phases of the European and World Cuptournaments since 2000. We estimate a negative binomial regression including both political andsport variables, and we find that (a) commercial hostility, (b) the level of diplomatic relationships,(c) power asymmetry and (d) education gap between countries are positively and significantlyassociated with aggressiveness of the players on the pitch, approximated by the number of yellowand red cards. That is, briefly stated, international hostility reverberates onto the pitch. Moreover,sport covariates present the expected signs, namely, results show that the closeness of the teams,their ranking and the stage of the game (knockout stages with respect to the group phases) arealso crucial in determining the cautions.[...]
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11575/5066
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 10
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact