Data Envelopment Analysis and Cross-Efficiency Evaluation in the Management of Sports Teams: The Assessment of Game Performance of Players in the Spanish Handball League

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and cross-efficiency evaluation are shown as support tools for sports team management in the context of a study of assessment of the individual game performance of handball players of the Spanish premier league. A sample of 66 players that play as backs in their teams is evaluated from the perspective of their offensive game. DEA yields a measure of the overall performance of the game of the players, and allows to identifying relative strengths and weaknesses by means of a benchmarking analysis. The cross-efficiency evaluation has provided a peer-appraisal of the players with the different patterns of game that the 10 players rated as efficient have used in the DEA assessments, and has made it possible to derive a full ranking of players.