Do Unfair Play and Low Performance Go Together?

Fair play is a core principle in sports competitions, and unfair play is penalized to prevent unfair advantages. However, the association between unfair play and performance has received little research attention. This study examined the hypothesis that unfair play is associated with lower performance. Taking football as an example, the hypothesis was tested by using archival data from fair play tables (fewer penalty points for fairer teams) and performance tables (more points for higher-performing teams) in the men’s (1st and 2nd Bundesliga; 18 teams) and women’s (1st Bundesliga, 12 teams) top football leagues in Germany over the past 20 years. As predicted, teams’ accumulated penalty points taken from the fair play tables and their points in the performance tables showed significant negative correlations when aggregated across the 20 seasons in all three leagues. Calculated per season, teams with more penalty points had significantly fewer performance points in 13 seasons in the men’s first league, 11 seasons in the men’s second league, and 12 seasons in the women’s first league. Limitations are discussed in terms of the correlational design that does not address the direction of causality between unfair play and low performance. Using observational and experimental methods and extending the analysis to other countries and other sports are discussed as directions for future research.