Pause time for fouls: Latin America stands out

Issue number 371 of the CIES Football Observatory

Weekly">ranks 38 leagues worldwide according to the InStat data on stoppage due to fouls. The two greatest figures were recorded for Latin American leagues, the Mexican and Colombian top divisions, while the highest fouls’ pause time out of the 33 European leagues surveyed was measured in Portugal.

All the five Latin American championships included in the sample are in the top 10 positions of the rankings. On average, the stoppage time for fouls is 15’43” in Latin America and 13’04” in Europe. This reflects a higher number of fouls per match (on average 27.0 vs 25.7), but also a greater time pause per foul (35.2” vs 30.8”).

The extreme values for fouls per match were recorded in Serbia (30.7) and the Netherlands (20.3), while those for stoppage time per foul were measured in Colombia (38

.3”) and Belarus (25.3”). The data refers to the ongoing season for winter leagues and to the 2021 season for summer ones (including current season’s matches if already started).