How does team composition affect performance in continental tournaments?

Figures & data

Figure 1. Conceptual framework.

Table 1. AFCON medal table

Country	Appearances	Performance (number of medals)			Best FIFA ranking
		Gold (1^st)	Silver (2^nd)	Bronze (3^rd)
Algeria	17	1	0	0	18
Angola	7	0	0	0	46
Benin	3	0	0	0	59
Botswana	1	0	0	0	94
Burkina Faso	7	0	1	1	35
Cameroun	18	3	1	0	11
Cape Verde	2	0	0	0	32
Congo Demo Republic	18	0	0	2	37
Congo Zaire	7	0	0	0	42
Cote D’Ivoire	22	2	2	1	12
Egypt	23	4	1	0	9
Equatorial Guinea	2	0	0	0	49
Ethiopia	10	0	0	0	93
Gabon	7	0	0	0	31
Ghana	21	0	3	1	16
Guinea Bissau	1	0	0	0	68
Guinea	11	0	0	0	22
Kenya	5	0	0	0	70
Libya	3	0	0	0	36
Liberia	2	0	0	0	73
Mali	10	0	0	2	23
Malawi	1	0	0	0	74
Morocco	16	0	1	0	10
Mozambique	4	0	0	0	68
Namibia	2	0	0	0	68
Nigeria	17	2	2	5	9
Niger	2	0	0	0	93
Rwanda	1	0	0	0	97
Sierra Leone	2	0	0	0	51
Senegal	14	0	1	0	26
South Africa	9	1	1	1	16
Sudan	8	0	0	0	93
Togo	8	0	0	0	46
Tunisia	18	1	1	0	19
Uganda	6	0	0	0	72
Zambia	17	1	1	2	15
Zimbabwe	3	0	0	0	44

Table 2. Description of variable responses

Variable	Response category	Frequency	Percentage (%)
International ranking	No data	21	9.5
	Highest rank	63	28.4
	Higher rank	78	35.1
	High rank	46	20.7
	Low rank	14	6.3
Age group	Youthful (up to 22years	37	16.7
	Matured (23–26years)	99	44.6
	Ageing (27years +)	86	38.7
Team Performance	Low performance	178	80.2
	High performance	44	19.8
Total		222	100

Table 3. Descriptive statistics

Variable	Observations	Mean	Standard deviation	Standard error (mean)	Min	Max
Performance	222	.1981982	.3995432	.0268156	0	1
No of appearances	222	9.5	5.514891	.3701353	1	23
Average age	222	24.91014	1.598151	.1072608	20.8	29.9
Foreign/Local	213	2.823297	4.519501	.3096711	0	22
% of elite players	222	52.39581	27.11002	1.819505	0	100
FIFA rank	222	1.86036	1.052193	.0706185	0	4

Table 4. Correlation matrix

	Performance	Appearances	Average age	% of elite players	FIFA ranking	Foreign/local players
Performance	1
Appearances	0.2619*	1
Average age	−0.0608	0.1642*	1
% of elite players	0.2964*	0.4512*	0.0357	1
FIFA ranking	−0.3975*	−0.3112*	−0.1725*	−0.3692*	1
Foreign/local players	0.1489*	0.3081*	0.0689	0.2723*	−0.153*	1

Table 5. Probit regression results

Performance	Coef.	Std. Err.	z	p > z	[95% conf. interval]
					Min	Max
Appearances	0.0543668	0.024108	2.26	0.024**	0.007116	0.1016175
Average age	−0.3622813	0.1704719	−2.13	0.034**	−0.6964	−0.0281626
Foreign/local players	0.0094262	0.0221623	0.43	0.671	−0.034011	0.0528635
% of elite players	0.0101093	0.0050764	1.99	0.046**	0.0001597	0.0200589
FIFA ranking	−0.7294809	0.1514618	−4.82	0.000***	−1.02634	−0.4326213
_cons	−0.1645755	0.5673114	−0.29	0.772	−1.276486	0.9473345
Log likelihood		−75.410101
LR Chi^2 (5)		57.84
Prob > Chi^2		0.000
Pseudo R^2		0.2772
Number of observations		213
Iteration 0: log likelihood = −104.32973 Iteration 1: log likelihood = −77.460021 Iteration 2: log likelihood = −75.430721 Iteration 3: log likelihood = −75.410108 Iteration 4: log likelihood = −75.410101

*** = p < 0.001, ** = p < 0.05.