Gender Equality and Institutions as the Driving Force of Football Performance: Women vs Men

Gender equality should be a necessity in every developed economy of the world. Despite this assumption, this is not the case. The field of sports is no exception. This study addresses the relationship between gender equality, institutions and football performance of national teams. Correlation and regression analysis is used to determine the relationship between variables. The results suggest that higher gender equality leads to better performance for footballers on the fields. Countries with higher gender equality perform better (more FIFA points). The economic condition of the country has a similar effect on performance. Estimates have shown a statistically significant positive relationship between economic prosperity and performance on the pitch. Climate and age of players do not affect the performance of national teams. Institutional factors significantly affect players’ performance. Members of the European Union perform significantly higher than those that are not in the EU. As well as countries in which there was no communist regime in the past . Keywords: gender inequality index, FIFA ranking, men, women, institutions