Football supporters’ perceptions of their role in the home advantage

Abstract

Football fans' views on their role in the home advantage were obtained by placing links to an internet questionnaire on supporters' websites. Altogether, 461 fans from clubs which had been promoted, relegated or unchanged in the past season of the English football leagues rated crowd support as significantly more influential than familiarity, travel, territoriality and referee bias in contributing to the home advantage. Fans felt responsible for inspiring their team to victory, took credit for distracting opponents, and believed that they could influence officials into making decisions in their team's favour. However, they did not accept personal blame for poor results. No effects for gender, age or the team's outcome in the promotion/relegation battle emerged, though season ticket holders were more extreme in their feelings of responsibility overall. Furthermore, it was suggested that mechanisms such as the perception of being superior to rivals can encourage fans to retain their allegiance to their teams, even when outcomes are disappointing. Indeed, affiliation may become so incorporated into self-identity that supporters may not have the option of abandoning their team, but instead perceive a reciprocal relationship in which both they and the team are expected to do their best to achieve success.

Financial Versus Sports Performance: The Missing Link

“…This finding is compliant with Cleland's (2010) and Wolfson et al (2005) arguments for the followers' strong psychological effects. However, the influences of this variable is residual.…”

“…Indeed, followers who strongly support the football teams can create strong psychological effects on football players, increasing team performance (Cleland, 2010;Wolfson et al, 2005). According to this statement, we consider the mean number of team followers in the ninth hypothesis:…”

“…According to several authors, within a short period, a club's ability to maintain a high level of financial performance depends on the revenue from the transfer fees for the most important players (Bruggink & Rose, 1990;Deloitte, 2015), the number of supporters (Cleland, 2010;Wolfson, Wakelin, & Lewis, 2005), the pay-TV rights (Andreff & Bourg, 2006;Ascari & Gagnepain, 2006;Baroncelli & Lago, 2006), the effectiveness of the marketing campaign, and the number of games played (Houston & Wilson, 2002;Rösch et al, 2000). Based on this argument, in the short period, it is easier for the firm's management to focus on the financial performance logic of that sport.…”

A qualitative analysis of perceptions of venue: Do professional soccer players and managers concur with the conceptual home advantage framework?

“…United States Olympic managers also reported they felt their athletes performed better in Olympic competition with loud, enthusiastic crowd support (Gould, Guinan, Greenleaf & Chung, 2002). The current findings regarding the positive impact of the crowd on performance and potential impact on the referees decisions also gives some substance to the findings of Wolfson, Wakelin and Lewis (2005) who reported that soccer fans believed they played a vital role in in inspiring their team to victory, distracting opponents and influencing the referee. In addition, the impact of spectator booing has also been suggested to increase the performance advantage of the home team and negatively impact on the away team's performance (Greer, 1983).…”

Should we try out for the major leagues? A call for research in sport operations management

“…The atmosphere co-created by spectators may have an influence on the sporting outcome, as evidenced by the 'home advantage' phenomenon (Wolfson et al, 2005). This characteristic distinguishes sport from other cultural events whereby the activity is scripted with a predictable outcome, even if some variability in performance exists every time (for example with theatrical productions or musical events).…”