The Road to Victory in the UEFA Women’s Champions League: A Multi-Level Analysis of Successful Coaches, Teams, and Countries

Edson, Filho orcid iconORCID: 0000-0002-8548-4651 and Jean, Rettig (2018) The Road to Victory in the UEFA Women’s Champions League: A Multi-Level Analysis of Successful Coaches, Teams, and Countries. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 39 . pp. 132-146. ISSN 1469-0292

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2018.07.012

Abstract

Objectives
To explore coach-level, team-level, and country-level factors associated with performance in the UEFA Women's Champions League.

Design
This study involved archival analysis of factual data on teams and coaches participating in the UEFA Women's Champions League (2011–12 until 2015–16).

Method
Official data records were provided by UEFA. Hierarchical linear modeling analysis was used to predict performance in the UEFA Women's Champions League. Specifically, coaches' characteristics (level-1 variables), team factors (level-2 variables), and country information (level-3 variables) were tested as predictors of performance (final rank, ranging from 1 to 32).

Results
Data analysis yielded a two- and three-level solution. The two-level solution was deemed more realistic and applied, and was chosen as the omnibus final model. Within the two-level solution, years coaching experience in Champions League at level-1 (γ10 = −2.90), and number of times team has won Champions League (γ01 = −7.13) and number of international players (γ02 = −1.08) at level-2, predict final performance at the UEFA Women's Champions League (i.e., negative coefficient is indicative of performance improvement).

Conclusions
Our findings suggest that the quality of the team, positive cross-cultural effects from an international roster, and the experience of the coach are positively associated with performance in the UEFA Women's Champions League.


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