Written by Keith Ingersoll, Edmund Malesky and Sebastian M. Saiegh, and published in the Journal of Sports Analytics, “Heterogeneity and team performance: Evaluating the effect of cultural diversity in the world’s top soccer league” is an academic study focused specifically on the impact cultural diversity has on the success of European soccer clubs. The authors focus on the clubs who competed in Europe’s top competition, the UEFA Champions League, during a ten year stretch from 2003-2013.
Ingersoll, Malesky and Saiegh collected data on 168 players across 41 clubs. Each of those clubs were given a cultural diversity rating based on a calculation referred to by the authors as “linguistic distance”. This, they explain, is to account for teams comprised with players who may be from different countries, but where the same language is spoken. (For example, South American players who play for Spanish clubs.)
Keeping in mind to address potential impacts to the results of the study, such as the financial resources of each club, Ingersoll, Malesky and Saiegh use the linguistic distance measurement, along with such readily available statistics such as goal difference, to determine the success rate of each club over each season of the annual tournament. Using data science, they find, much as I had very unscientifically, that the clubs with the greater cultural diversity rating did in fact have greater success on the pitch.
Good work, Mike. A couple of things to consider as you move forward:
1) it would be useful to incorporate the authors’ main argument into your first paragraph–no need to wait until the end; just bottom-line it for us from the start
2) if the authors are quantifying the impact, consider providing 1 or 2 key statistics that support this main claim–just how much of an improvement does this greater diversity account for?
Good use of links to furnish that material for your audience–thanks.