Which Football Leagues Have the Most Yellow Cards?

Key findings

At the top of the ranking, Colombia’s Primera A averages 5.52 yellow cards per match. Serbia’s Mozzart Bet Super Liga follows at 5.44, while Portugal’s Liga Portugal 2 is third at 5.11. Four of the 50 leagues currently average at least five yellow cards per match, and 12 average 4.5 or more.

Football leagues with the most yellow cards per match

The chart shows the 15 highest current-season averages in the dataset. It uses yellow cards per match rather than total cards, so leagues at different stages of their season can be compared on the same basis.

Colombia’s Primera A is the only league in this sample above 5.5 yellow cards per game. Serbia’s top flight is close behind, and the second tiers in Portugal and Germany also sit above five.

Full yellow-card ranking

The complete table includes the number of matches, overall yellow-card average, home and away averages and the percentage of matches finishing above 2.5, 3.5, 4.5 and 5.5 yellow cards.

For an interactive league-by-league view, you can also explore Footiqo’s full-time league card statistics, with filters and detailed yellow-card figures across competitions.

Average yellow cards per game in the Premier League

The English Premier League currently averages 3.76 yellow cards per match in the Footiqo sample of 50 matches. Home teams average 1.70 cards and away teams 2.06.

In terms of card lines, 76% of Premier League matches have gone over 2.5 yellow cards, 50% over 3.5, 36% over 4.5 and 18% over 5.5.

The timing split is also clear: the Premier League averages 1.34 first-half yellow cards and 2.42 second-half yellow cards. That means 64.4% of the combined first-half and second-half card average occurs after half-time.

How do the Big Five European leagues compare?

Among the five major European top flights in this dataset, LaLiga has the highest current yellow-card average at 4.19 per match. The Premier League follows at 3.76, ahead of the Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1.

All five show more yellow cards after half-time than before it. The difference is not identical from league to league, but the second half accounts for more than 60% of the combined first-half and second-half average in every Big Five competition shown here.

Do away teams receive more yellow cards?

In this dataset, the answer is often yes. Away teams have a higher average than home teams in 39 of the 50 leagues. Home teams have the higher average in 10, while one league is level.

The largest away-over-home gap appears in Spain’s LaLiga2: away teams average 2.86 yellow cards per match compared with 2.11 for home teams, a difference of 0.75. Switzerland’s Super League has the next-largest gap at 0.70.

There are exceptions. In Ligue 1, home teams average 1.71 yellow cards compared with 1.42 for away teams. Italy’s Serie A also runs in the opposite direction, at 1.76 home cards and 1.52 away cards.

These figures describe what is happening in the recorded matches; they do not explain why. Team style, match state, refereeing and the composition of each league can all vary, so the home-away split should not be treated as evidence of a single underlying cause.

To look beyond league averages and compare individual clubs, see Footiqo’s full-time team yellow-card statistics.

First half vs second half yellow cards

The strongest cross-league pattern in the current export is the timing of bookings. All 50 leagues have a higher second-half yellow-card average than first-half average.

The next chart focuses on the ten leagues with the highest overall yellow-card averages and shows the first-half and second-half figures side by side.

Among these ten high-card leagues, second-half averages are substantially higher in every case. Spain’s LaLiga2, for example, rises from 1.63 cards in the first half to 3.33 in the second. Germany’s 3. Liga moves from 1.69 to 3.37.

Full first-half vs second-half table

The table below is ordered by the share of the combined first-half and second-half average occurring after half-time.

Why sample size matters when comparing card leagues

Card rankings can move quickly when only a small number of matches have been played. One unusually physical round can have a large effect on a league average early in a season.

For that reason, this comparison uses only the regular leagues in the supplied Footiqo export and every included competition has at least 30 recorded matches. The match count is shown beside every league so readers can judge the size of the sample directly.

The leagues are also at different points in their domestic calendars. A competition with 300 completed matches is naturally more stable than one with 35 or 40, even though both pass the minimum threshold.

Methodology

• Source: Footiqo current-season football data supplied for this study.
• Scope: 50 regular domestic leagues, representing 5,413 recorded matches in total.
• Minimum sample: every included league has at least 30 matches.
• Average yellow cards: combined home and away yellow cards per match.
• Home/Away averages: yellow cards received by the home and away team respectively.
• Over percentages: share of matches exceeding the specified full-time yellow-card line.
• First half / second half: yellow-card averages are analysed separately for each half.
• 2H share: second-half average divided by the sum of the first-half and second-half averages.

This is a descriptive study of the recorded Footiqo data. It does not establish that league, country or venue causes a particular card rate, and current-season figures can change as more matches are played.

About Footiqo

Footiqo is a football statistics and data platform covering teams, leagues, referees, historical results, betting markets and match analysis. Its free statistics pages and football datasets are designed for bettors, analysts, researchers and anyone who wants to explore football through data.

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