It’s been a while since I’ve done this, but the likely (maybe) return of the Primera División this weekend has motivated me to run the numbers on effective playing time and major referee metrics.  First effective playing time, which was calculated for all matches played before the summer break in Argentina.  Data was supplied by DataFactory.

In contrast to the previous post, I’ve adjusted the effective time calculation to account for time lost due to balls out of play and restarted with throw-ins.  DataFactory doesn’t record the moments in which a ball leaves play except for corner kick concessions, so I have to estimate the additional time lost due to throw-in and goal kick events, which DataFactory does record.  This post gives a description of the adjustment; I used the power-law model to estimate median time lost as well as upper and lower bounds.

The average amount of adjusted effective playing time in Primera is 47 minutes 27 seconds (and the interval appears to be between 43 and 50 minutes).  Matches with the greatest amount of adjusted effective playing time are the following:

• Huracán vs Colón, matchday 12, referee Héctor Paletta (65 minutes 31 seconds)
• Newell’s vs San Martín (San Juan), matchday 14, referee Ramiro López (62 minutes 28 seconds)
• Olimpo vs San Lorenzo, matchday 12, referee Fernando Echenique (62 minutes 14 seconds)

Matches with the lowest adjusted effective playing time are:

• Colón vs Talleres, matchday 3, referee Facundo Tello (32 minutes 48 seconds)
• Aldosivi vs Colón, matchday 1, referee Germán Delfino (33 minutes 18 seconds)
• Aldosivi vs Defensa y Justicia, matchday 9, referee Andrés Merlo (35 minutes 9 seconds)