DFL Sport Report: Bundesliga remains the highest-scoring top league in Europe

In a comparison of the five top leagues in Europe, the Bundesliga provides the matches with the most goals. (Photo: DFL/Getty/Boris Streubel)
  • Excitement in all areas of the league table, free-flowing games and only few goalless draws make for appealing and entertaining matches.

28 January 2020 – Today the DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga published the ‘DFL Sport Report’. Every year, key figures about the Bundesliga are prepared and ranked in an international comparison. A clear characteristic of the Bundesliga this season is the huge excitement up and down the league table.

In a comparison of the five top leagues in Europe, the Bundesliga traditionally provides the matches with the most goals. This was confirmed in the first half of the current 2019-20 season: on average, spectators got to see 3.2 goals per match in the Bundesliga (492 goals in total). At the same time, no more than 3.3 per cent of all Bundesliga games ended goalless – a value not bettered by any other top European league. With 27 shots on goal per game, there are more frequent attempts at goal than in England, Spain or France. Bundesliga players successfully converted 15.4 per cent of their chances – the highest value among Europe’s top leagues. As a result, the Bundesliga is also home to some of the top goalscorers so far this season: Robert Lewandowski and Timo Werner are currently among Europe’s leading scorers. In this regard winter arrival Erling Haaland is likewise putting himself, his club and the Bundesliga in the international spotlight.

Also plenty of goals in Bundesliga 2

Further indicators of attractive and entertaining football are the free flow of the games and many actions on the ball. The figure of 25.1 fouls per match stood as the second-lowest value in the comparison of Europe’s top leagues, while 1,303 actions on the ball per match (number of all passes, interceptions, shots on goal and duels with successful dribbling) are surpassed only by the Premier League (1,311).

In a large number of the indicators compiled, Bundesliga 2 also exhibits a high level and entertains with many goals (3.0 per match on average) and shots on goal (27.8). A high pass completion rate (81.8 per cent) and few fouls (25.0) and yellow cards (4.0) per match provide further evidence that games flow well and are highly enjoyable to watch.

At the European level, this season has already seen German clubs accrue 12.428 points towards the UEFA country coefficient that is used to determine the number of Champions League and Europa League places allocated to each country. With this amount, Germany secures third place ahead of Italy and France.

Focus on ‘Projekt Zukunft’

The Bundesliga has the second youngest playing squads of the top European leagues, with an average player age of just 26.5. Nevertheless, DFL and DFB are currently pressing ahead with the further development of youth academies, which will see tailored action to help players advance introduced individually at each location in future in order to further improve player training at the clubs.

As part of its annual youth training honorarium, the DFL last year paid out a total of €4.6 million to clubs at every tier of the German league system which were involved in training a player who later turned professional. Specifically, clubs benefit if players, having trained and played there between the ages of five and 21, sign professional playing contracts for a Bundesliga or Bundesliga 2 club and play their first competitive matches.

A further component of youth development is aimed expressly at clubs in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 and is calculated proportionally according to the minutes played by U23 professional players from the ‘Local Player’ category. The corresponding development fund amounts to two per cent of national broadcast revenue and thus a total of more than €22 million for last season (2018-19).

The sporting education of top talents in German football is also the overriding goal of ‘Projekt Zukunft’ from DFL and DFB, which includes plans to redefine and, above all, implement game formats and personal development at youth level as well as interconnect the structures in amateur football at the interface with professional football. It is also intended to counteract the current trend towards less playing time for U21 players in the Bundesliga. At the DFL New Year Reception, DFL CEO Christian Seifert described ‘Projekt Zukunft’ as ‘the most important sporting project in German football in the next ten to 15 years’.