Usefulness of dismissing and changing the coach in professional soccer

Whether a coach dismissal during the mid-season has an impact on the subsequent team performance has long been a subject of controversial scientific discussion. Here we find a clear-cut answer to this question by using a recently developed statistical framework for the team fitness and by analyzing...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2011-03, Vol.6 (3), p.e17664-e17664
Main Authors: Heuer, Andreas, Müller, Christian, Rubner, Oliver, Hagemann, Norbert, Strauss, Bernd
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Associations
Behavioral sciences
Coaches & managers
Computer Science
Employment
Fitness
Germany
Humans
Hypotheses
Leadership
Mathematics
Physical chemistry
Physics
Professional baseball
Professional soccer
Professional sports
Seasons
Soccer
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Statistical analysis
Statistics
Success
Upper bounds
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Summary:Whether a coach dismissal during the mid-season has an impact on the subsequent team performance has long been a subject of controversial scientific discussion. Here we find a clear-cut answer to this question by using a recently developed statistical framework for the team fitness and by analyzing the first two moments of the effect of a coach dismissal. We can show with an unprecedented small statistical error for the German soccer league that dismissing the coach within the season has basically no effect on the subsequent performance of a team. Changing the coach between two seasons has no effect either. Furthermore, an upper bound for the actual influence of the coach on the team fitness can be estimated. Beyond the immediate relevance of this result, this study may lead the way to analogous studies for exploring the effect of managerial changes, e.g., in economic terms.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0017664