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The Triumph of Passion: How Strong Domestic Clubs Lead to National Soccer Success

Despite the ubiquity of soccer fans and soccer talent throughout the global community, the highest quality soccer played on a weekly basis is constrained to a handful of European professional leagues, and the last two World Cup championships have been decided by a match between European teams. The dominant national team of the current era, Spain, hosts a professional league with clubs experiencing nearly unprecedented international success. Is this a coincidence? Do strong domestic clubs improve national team results? Employing annual panel data from 1993 through 2010 for all FIFA member countries, this paper investigates the relationship between a country’s soccer success at the club level and at the national level. By isolating the impact of domestic club strength on national teams, we show that stronger domestic clubs positively affect national team performance.