Abstract
The purpose of this study was to compare the competitive profiles across the Spanish football leagues at the present time. The final standings (n=32) and results of the matches played (n=11,122) in the 2015/2016 season were analysed. Four categories of analysis were selected: Level of competitive balance of matches, Level of compactability of team standings, Magnitude of home-field advantage effect, and Degree of openness of the matches. Using statistical procedures for the comparison of means by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the Chi-Squared test, it was concluded that in the panorama of Spanish football, the men's 2nd division stands out as the Championship that corresponds to a competitive profile with greater equality and that the women's 1st division presents the most unbalanced competitive profile (p < .05). A trend was also observed that indicated that the more professionalized Championships present a higher level of competitive balance of the matches, a higher level of compactability of the team standings, and a lower degree of openness of the matches with respect to the less professionalized Championships, due to the presence of statistically significant differences (p < .05) in the set of categories analysed.