Some stats on goalscoring actually. Euro 92 was the last tournament with the back-pass rule and had fewer goals per game than Italia 90. Euro 96 was surprisingly the same, but the next four tournaments saw a big uptick, only for the most recent two (and again, the Euro 2020 stats are a random point in time, not the final figures) to drop back to Italia 90 levels again.
Code:
Tour Games Goals GPG Penos GPG (excl penos)
1992 15 32 2.13 3 1.93
1996 31 64 2.06 6 1.87
2000 31 85 2.74 8 2.48
2004 31 77 2.48 7 2.26
2008 31 77 2.48 4 2.35
2012 31 76 2.45 3 2.35
2016 51 108 2.12 8 1.96
2020 21 45 2.14 4 1.95
The World Cup also saw an uptick after the backpass rule, but its goals slump was in 2006/10.
Code:
Tour Games Goals GPG Penos GPG (excl penos)
1990 52 115 2.21 13 1.96
1994 52 141 2.71 15 2.42
1998 64 171 2.67 17 2.41
2002 64 161 2.52 13 2.31
2006 64 147 2.30 13 2.09
2010 64 145 2.27 9 2.13
2014 64 171 2.67 12 2.48
2018 64 169 2.64 22 2.30
It's tempting to say that dross like Panama, Saudi Arabia, etc, boosts the WC figures, but then Albania, North Macedonia and others have made the last two Euros.
So is this a real issue developing? Or an anomaly? Or just random ramblings and misinterpretation of stats?
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