Comparison of home advantage in men's and women's football leagues in Europe

Abstract

Most research into home advantage is based on men's sports. This article analyses home advantage in the women's domestic football leagues of Europe and makes a comparison with the corresponding men's football leagues. A total of 47,042 games were included. From 2004 to 2010, home advantage existed in the domestic women's soccer leagues of all 26 European countries analysed, ranging from 51.0% to 58.8% and averaging 54.2%. In every country, this was less than the corresponding men's home advantage which averaged 60.0%. Crowd effects, both on players and referees, and different gender perceptions of territorial protection are plausible reasons for the differences found. Using a regression model that controlled for the competitive balance of each league, as well as for crowd size, the Gender Gap Index, which quantifies the status of women in each country, was a significant predictor of the difference between men's and women's home advantage. As the status of women becomes closer to that of men within a country, the difference in home advantage is less between the men's and women's football leagues.

A comparison of competitive profiles across the Spanish football leagues

“…The data recorded in our study, although it did not show significant differences in the statistical analysis between the HPCs and IPCs, demonstrated that in the HPCs, motivated by the presence of a larger number of spectators in the stadiums and their influence on the environmental pressure on the visiting team's play and the decisions by the referees (Downward & Jones, 2007;Pollard, 2008;Page & Page, 2010;Pollard & Gómez, 2014), a more favourable context of play was observed for the home team over the visiting team, which showed a smaller percentage of victories in the HPCs in comparison with the IPCs (25.9% and 31.6%, respectively). Along this same line, a study developed by Armatas et al (2013), also highlighted that the advantage of playing at home was greater in the Greek Super Liga than in other Ligas Amateur in Greece.…”

“…The results obtained in this section of Study I agree partially with those described by Gómez et al (2008), which confirm that in women's football matches, due to the fact that the level of tactical organization and defensive intensity of the teams is lower, the mean goals scored was higher than in men's football (1.85 and 1.15, respectively). Also, Pollard and Gómez (2014), in a study done on the 26 European leagues with the simultaneous presence of men's and women's Championships, they observed that the effect of home-field advantage was always more favourable in men's tournaments than in women's tournaments (p < 0.001). Another study done by the same authors (Pollard and Gómez, 2012), partially reconfirmed the results found in our study, concluding that the degree of variability in the final scores achieved by the teams (competitive balance) was lower in men's Championships than in women's Championships (1.76 and 2.33, respectively).…”

“…Furthermore, the physiological manifestations deriving from the dynamic of play in men's and women's football matches (% of max HR and % VO2 max) were similar for both groups (Stolen et al, 2005;Jastrzębski et al, 2015). From the technical-tactical point of view, some studies also indicate that a larger number of goals per match were observed in women's football in comparison with men's ) and a lower influence of home-team advantage in the final result in women's football with respect to men's (Pollard & Gómez, 2014).…”

Quality, height, age and home advantage in boxing. [Calidad, altura, edad y la ventaja de boxear en casa].

“…The HA has been proved in cricket (Morley & Thomas, 2005), basketball (García, Saéz, Ibañez, Parejo & Cañadas, 2009), baseball (Levernier & Barrilla, 2007), volleyball (Marcelino, Mesquita, Palao & Sampaio, 2009;Marcelino, Mesquita & Sampaio, 2011), handball (Pollard & Gómez, 2012), water polo (Gómez, de la Serna, Lupo, & Sampaio, 2016), rugby (Gómez, Pollard & Luis-Pascual, 2011) and women's football (Pollard & Gómez, 2014). In relation to football, the HA has been studied and proved (Lago-Peñas & Lago-Ballesteros, 2011;Gómez, Gómez-López, Lago & Sampaio, 2012) in double elimination rounds (Page & Page, 2007), depending on the round (Pic & Castellano, 2016;Pic & Castellano, 2017).…”

Current approaches to performance analysis in team sports. [Enfoques actuales para el análisis de rendimiento en deportes de equipo].

“…Both approaches allowed reaching consistent conclusion about performance analysis of soccer and youth basketball players with a great impact of training drills. The gender effect has less studied in performance analysis research area (Pollard & Gómez, 2014). Accordingly, the special issue tried to incorporate some new analyses that accounted for females' performances.…”