The Portuguese League leads the European championships with the longest break for fouls, indicates this Monday the latest study presented by the Football Observatory (CIES).
Of the 33 European leagues analyzed in this CIES report, based on matches played up to February 24, none has seen more downtime than the Portuguese. It should be noted that the delay in analysis by the CIES means that routes 24 and 25, in the meantime contested here, have not yet been considered.
Until that date, the main Portuguese league has an average stoppage time of 16 minutes and six seconds due to fouls, well above the European average of 13 minutes and four seconds. Interestingly, the Premier League and Ligue 1 lose more time to fouls, but as fewer offenses are reported per game, in the English and French main leagues the average stoppage time is 11.28 minutes and 12.08 minutes respectively. Much less than the Portuguese championship, which is above the quarter of an hour.
The average number of fouls per game in the Portuguese league, up to and including Matchday 23, is 30.1, also higher than the European average, which is set at 25.7 fouls per game. The seconds lost for each foul in the Portuguese league are, on average, 32.1 (also above the European average of 30.8).
In the overall analysis of the 38 leagues studied, only the Mexican and Colombian leagues surpass the Portuguese in time lost with fouls: 16:27 and 16:07 minutes, respectively.
The Serbian league has the highest average number of fouls per game (30.7), as opposed to the Dutch league (20.3). In the hierarchy of average times for each fault, Colombia appears in the lead (38.3 seconds) and Belarus at the other extreme (25.3 seconds).
The top 10 leagues with the most minutes lost due to fouls:
