Competitive balance is an important concept for professional sports and one of the key issues that European football has to address in order to ensure its long-term prosperity. However, the quantification of competitive balance is not an easy task. The difficulties are mainly associated with its multi-dimensionality character as well as the structure of each particular sport. This article uses data from eight domestic leagues over 60 years to identify the best index for a holistic view of competitive balance in European football. The findings support the longstanding Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis using indices designed for the important three identified levels of competition and offering a weighting pattern for ranking places. Important conclusions may be derived concerning the relative importance of different aspects of competitive balance depending on the specific features of the best index.

翻译：竞争平衡是职业体育的一个重要概念,也是欧洲足球为确保长期繁荣而必须解决的关键问题之一,然而,对竞争平衡进行量化并非易事,困难主要与其多维性特点和每个特定体育的结构有关。本条利用60年8个国内赛联的数据确定欧洲足球竞争平衡整体观点的最佳指数。研究结果支持成果假设的长期不确定性,使用为重要的3级竞争而设计的指数,为排名提供加权模式。根据最佳指数的具体特点,可以得出关于竞争平衡不同方面的相对重要性的重要结论。