Determinants of national men’s football team performance: A focus on goal difference between teams

In the literature, several articles have focused on the socioeconomic and sporting determinants of national men's football team performance measured through FIFA points. In the present paper, knowledge improvement comes from focusing on goal difference in individual games. The main objectives are to verify that game outcomes have some determinants similar to FIFA points but also game specific variables (home advantage and sporting prizes). The methodology is based on regressions including all games over the 2011–2013 period (2,584 observations). The results confirm that game outcomes have some determinants similar to FIFA points but also game specific variables