Burnley have received fewest penalties in Europe over last three seasons

It's official - Burnley have been awarded the fewest penalties in Europe since 2017.
Jay Rodriguez scores from the spot against Bournemouth in FebruaryJay Rodriguez scores from the spot against Bournemouth in February
Jay Rodriguez scores from the spot against Bournemouth in February

The Clarets went 67 Premier League games without being awarded a spot kick, after Sam Vokes netted in a 3-1 defeat at Everton in April 2017, before Ashley Barnes netted against Southampton after a Jack Stephens handball in February 2019 - although Barnes had already been denied a cast-iron penalty earlier in the game after being brought down by keeper Alex McCarthy.

Burnley have only won four penalties in 105 games since the start of the 2017 season, or one every 2,363 minutes, scoring all four - Barnes v Southampton, and the next game at former club Brighton, 24 league games later. Barnes again won and scored one at Watford in November, and Jay Rodriguez netted against Bournemouth in February, which came after the Cherries had a goal ruled out on the break due to a handball by Adam Smith being reviewed by VAR.

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The 300th edition of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post https://football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2019/wp300/en/ compares 35 European leagues according to the number of penalties per game whistled by referees since the 2017/18 season (2018 for summer leagues) as per data provided by InStat.

At the top of the table is the Polish Ekstraklasa (a penalty every 230 minutes), while at the opposite end is the Norwegian Eliteserien (every 389 minutes).

The Premier League (382’) and the Championship (377’) in England are the second and third leagues where the fewest penalties are whistled.

The research suggests that result can be explained by the lower tendency of players to ‘look for fouls’.

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Penalties are also not whistled very often in the German Bundesliga (321’), while their frequency is much greater in the Italian Serie A (249’), the French Ligue 1 (262’) and the Spanish Liga (268’).

At club level, the Serbian side Crvena Zvezda (Red Star Belgrade) leads the rankings with a penalty obtained every 209 minutes.

Among big-5 league clubs, Lazio (296’) tops the table ahead of Paris St-Germain (320’) and Sampdoria (325’).

Burnley are at the other end of the spectrum, ahead of Newcastle United (five penalties, of which only one scored) and the Norwegians of Odds BK.