This Monthly Report focuses on the top English football division: the Premier League. It analyses the evolution of the origin of players fielded over the past ten years. It shows that the percentage of players having grown up in England, the “nationals”, has progressively fallen to reach a new negative record level over the current season. The proportion of goals scored by Englishmen shows a similar trend.

This 42nd Monthly Report analyses the evolution of the competitive balance in the group stages of the Champions League since the introduction of the current format in 2003/04. The different indicators analysed illustrate a clear trend towards less balance and more predictability.

The 41st CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report analyses the link between ball possession and results in 35 championships from UEFA member associations using the data used generated by the specialist InStat company. Though the link between success and possession is undeniable, it is only from a certain level that ball control allows teams to improve significantly their results. This is probably the source of the erroneous but widespread idea that possession is not a key factor for success.

Competitive balance is a crucial issue for the whole of collective sports. The 40th Monthly Report of the CIES Football Observatory analyses this issue from a spatio-temporal perspective. The sample includes 24 European competitions over a period of ten seasons between 2008/09 and 2017/18. All of the indicators analysed illustrate a trend towards a greater imbalance in European football.

The long-term work carried out within the CIES Football Observatory focuses, in particular, on the demographic analysis of the football players’ labour market. The surveys carried out over the past decade allow us to reveal very clear trends. As illustrated in this report, the footballers’ labour market in Europe is becoming deterritorialised by a decreasing presence of club-trained players, a stronger presence of expatriate footballers and greater mobility.

This report analyses club strategies in the area of player turnover for the five major European leagues since 2005/06. It reveals that too many changes in line-ups do not constitute a good strategy for optimising results. On the contrary, high turnover levels tend to affect players’ confidence and aggravate the situation.