How Football Has Changed in 25 Seasons: Fouls, Corners and Cards
Twenty-five seasons of English match statistics, set beside the Big Five, show fewer fouls, fewer corners and fewer red cards, but more yellows than ever.
- −3.6Change in fouls per match, England, first vs last 5 seasons
- +0.75Change in yellow cards per match, same comparison
- 13.0Red cards per 100 English matches, 2021/22-2025/26
- 25Seasons of English match statistics
Every market we cover at Soccers Tips rests on a baseline, and baselines drift. I wanted to know how far fouls, corners and cards have moved over the last 25 seasons, and whether old shot counts can be trusted against new ones. The answer is that the game has become cleaner in some ways and stricter in others.
Across 49,502 English matches and 34,365 Big Five top-flight matches, fouls are down, corners are slightly down and red cards have fallen steadily. Yellow cards have gone the other way in England, which matters to anyone pricing bookings from memory. Shots are the exception: a recording change breaks that series, so I leave it out. The same discipline applies when I read our today's corner tips page, because a corner line set on old habits is a line set on the wrong number.
Q1Are there really fewer fouls and corners than before?
Yes, though the two lines tell different stories. Fouls in England's top four divisions peaked at 26.4 per match in 2001/02 and bottomed out at 20.3 in 2011/12, then recovered part of the way. Comparing the first five seasons with the last five, the average fell from 25.7 to 22.1.
Corners moved far more gently, sliding from 11.1 to 10.1 per match. That is a slow erosion, not a collapse, but it has been fairly consistent across the recent seasons rather than a single bad year.
View the data: fouls and corners per match since 2001/02
| Fouls | Corners | |
|---|---|---|
| 2001/02 | 26.4 | 11 |
| 2002/03 | 25.4 | 11.4 |
| 2003/04 | 25.3 | 11.3 |
| 2004/05 | 25.7 | 11 |
| 2005/06 | 25.6 | 10.8 |
| 2006/07 | 24.9 | 11.1 |
| 2007/08 | 23.8 | 11.2 |
| 2008/09 | 23.5 | 11.1 |
| 2009/10 | 22.6 | 11.1 |
| 2010/11 | 21.5 | 11.1 |
| 2011/12 | 20.3 | 11.1 |
| 2012/13 | 20.8 | 11 |
| 2013/14 | 21.9 | 10.9 |
| 2014/15 | 22 | 10.8 |
| 2015/16 | 21.7 | 10.7 |
| 2016/17 | 22.9 | 10.5 |
| 2017/18 | 22.9 | 10.4 |
| 2018/19 | 23.2 | 10.5 |
| 2019/20 | 24 | 10.5 |
| 2020/21 | 24.5 | 9.8 |
| 2021/22 | 21.7 | 10 |
| 2022/23 | 21.8 | 9.9 |
| 2023/24 | 21.9 | 10.5 |
| 2024/25 | 22.9 | 9.9 |
| 2025/26 | 22.4 | 10.1 |
For a corners bettor, the lesson is that a whole match point has quietly gone out of the average. If your sense of a normal English game was formed a long time ago, your over lines are probably pitched a little high.
Q2Why are yellow cards rising when fouls are falling?
This is the chart I find most useful. English yellow cards rose from 2.97 per match in 2001/02-2005/06 to 3.72 in 2021/22-2025/26, with the highest season at 3.99 in 2023/24. Put that next to the fall in fouls and referees are now showing about 1.7 yellows per 10 fouls, against 1.2 in the first five seasons.
The Big Five line is flatter. Their yellows barely moved, from 3.95 to 4.09, even though their foul count fell much more sharply than England's.
View the data: yellow cards per match: england vs the big five
| England (4 divisions) | Big Five top flights | |
|---|---|---|
| 2001/02 | 2.97 | – |
| 2002/03 | 3.15 | – |
| 2003/04 | 3.08 | – |
| 2004/05 | 2.71 | – |
| 2005/06 | 2.91 | – |
| 2006/07 | 3.07 | – |
| 2007/08 | 2.79 | 3.94 |
| 2008/09 | 2.78 | 3.98 |
| 2009/10 | 2.98 | 3.97 |
| 2010/11 | 2.92 | 3.8 |
| 2011/12 | 2.92 | 4.05 |
| 2012/13 | 2.9 | 4.07 |
| 2013/14 | 2.96 | 3.88 |
| 2014/15 | 3.12 | 4.15 |
| 2015/16 | 3.05 | 4.17 |
| 2016/17 | 3.4 | 4.02 |
| 2017/18 | 3.14 | 3.89 |
| 2018/19 | 3.24 | 4.06 |
| 2019/20 | 3.31 | 4.32 |
| 2020/21 | 2.9 | 3.85 |
| 2021/22 | 3.45 | 4.17 |
| 2022/23 | 3.59 | 4.13 |
| 2023/24 | 3.99 | 4.28 |
| 2024/25 | 3.85 | 4 |
| 2025/26 | 3.71 | 3.89 |
My reading is that English football has converged towards continental card levels, but by booking more readily rather than by fouling more. The main caveat belongs here: card counts reflect booking rules and refereeing guidance as much as player behaviour, so a trend like this can shift when the guidance does.
Q3How rare have red cards become in English football?
Considerably rarer. Red cards fell from 20.1 per 100 English matches in 2001/02-2005/06 to 13.0 per 100 in 2021/22-2025/26, and every five-season block sits lower than the one before it. The figures include second-yellow dismissals as recorded, so this is not simply straight reds disappearing.
More yellows and fewer reds suggests referees now manage matches with cautions earlier, and players adjust before a second booking arrives.
View the data: red cards per 100 matches, england, by five seasons
| Top four divisions, both teams combined | |
|---|---|
| 2001/02-2005/06 | 20.1 |
| 2006/07-2010/11 | 17.4 |
| 2011/12-2015/16 | 16.4 |
| 2016/17-2020/21 | 14.5 |
| 2021/22-2025/26 | 13 |
For anyone backing a sending-off, the base rate has dropped by roughly a third. A price that looked fair against the old rate may now be poor value.
Q4How do England and the Big Five compare, then and now?
The table puts the comparison side by side. Big Five fouls dropped from 31.1 to 23.8 per match, twice the size of England's fall, while their corners dipped from 10.4 to 9.7. Goals edged up in both, from 2.59 to 2.64 in England and from 2.64 to 2.81 in the Big Five.
Shots are missing on purpose. English shots on target dropped from 11.4 to 8.5 per match across adjacent blocks while total shots rose from 22.0 to 23.5. That pattern is the mark of a change in how shots were counted, not in how football was played.
| Per match | Eng then | Eng now | Change | Big 5 then | Big 5 now | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corners | 11.1 | 10.1 | −1.0 | 10.4 | 9.7 | −0.7 |
| Fouls | 25.7 | 22.1 | −3.6 | 31.1 | 23.8 | −7.3 |
| Yellow cards | 2.97 | 3.72 | +0.75 | 3.95 | 4.09 | +0.14 |
| Goals | 2.59 | 2.64 | +0.05 | 2.64 | 2.81 | +0.17 |
Any model that blends shot data from both sides of that break is comparing two different rulers. I would trust only shot samples taken after the change.
The playbook
How we would use these numbers before the next match.
- Refresh your corner baseline. English corners now average 10.1 per match against 11.1 in the early seasons. Build lines from recent seasons only, not long-run memory.
- Price bookings on recent seasons. English yellows reached 3.72 per match in the last five seasons, with 3.99 at the peak. Older averages near 2.97 will understate cards today.
- Respect the falling red rate. Red cards now arrive at 13.0 per 100 English matches, down from 20.1. Demand a longer price before backing a dismissal.
Data & method
- Data: England top four divisions 2001/02-2025/26 (49,502 matches) and Big Five top flights 2007/08-2025/26 (34,365 matches).
- League set held constant so the trend is not driven by which leagues are covered: England's four divisions from 2001/02, Big Five top flights from 2007/08 (the first season all five have full statistics).
- Per-match figures are totals for both teams; red cards include second-yellow dismissals as recorded.
- Five-season blocks compare averages of all matches in those seasons.
- Matches with any missing shot, foul, corner or card figure are excluded.
- Caveat: A few early English seasons have incomplete statistics for some matches.
- Caveat: Shot and shots-on-target recording changed around 2013/14, so shot counts are not trended across the break.
- Caveat: Card counts reflect booking rules and refereeing guidance as well as player behaviour.
Quick Q&A
- Are there more yellow cards in football now than 20 years ago?
- In England, yes. Yellow cards rose from 2.97 per match in 2001/02-2005/06 to 3.72 in 2021/22-2025/26, while the Big Five barely moved from 3.95 to 4.09.
- Have corners per match gone down?
- Slightly. England's top four divisions fell from 11.1 to 10.1 corners per match, and the Big Five dipped from 10.4 to 9.7.
- Can I compare old and new shots on target figures?
- Not safely. English shots on target fell from 11.4 to 8.5 per match while total shots rose from 22.0 to 23.5, which points to a recording change rather than a change in play.
I'm Eleanor Crow, editor at Soccers Tips. After a decade writing football betting previews I now lead the team and keep our analysis honest across every market we cover.
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