Analysing the technical efficiency of the Spanish Football League First Division with a random frontier model

This article analyses technical efficiency of football clubs in the Spanish Football League Division 1 (Primera Liga) from the seasons 1995-1996 to 2004-2005 with an unbalanced panel data. The random frontier model is used, allowing the identification of random variables in the cost frontier. It is concluded that the price of capital investment, the number of points won and attendance are heterogeneous variables. Therefore, no common public policy aiming to improve efficiency can embrace all of the clubs, so that policies by clusters are required.