Home advantage in European soccer without crowd

Sánchez, Alfredo Hernández; Lavín, José M.

doi:10.1080/14660970.2020.1830067

Cited by 39 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…These findings may be similar to the analysis of women's leagues, performed by Pollard and Gómez (2014), which showed, among other factors, low home advantage with low occupancy stadium rates. Another interesting analysis, recently performed by Jiménez Sánchez and Lavín (2020), showed that no differences to home advantage due to absence of spectators during COVID 19, with the exception of German and Spanish leagues.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

An analysis of Bundesliga matches before and after social distancing by COVID-19

Santana

Bettega

Dellagrana

2021

Science and Medicine in Football

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Methods: Variables from 305 matches from 2019/2020 Bundesliga season were analyzed. Normality, mean comparisons, analysis of variance and effect sizes were performed. Results: After SD, lower values were observed for goals attempt and distance covered, while higher values were found for passes accuracy and fouls committed (p < 0.05). Home teams before SD presented higher number of goals scored at 2 nd half and less fouls committed than visiting opponents, after SD away teams had higher number of goals scored at the same half (p = 0.043) and a similar number of fouls (p = 0.035). Home teams performed more sprints than visiting opponents before SD, but after SD no difference was observed between home and away teams (p = 0.042). Total distance covered for both home and away teams were lower after SD (p = 0.041). Home teams presented higher values of goal attempts to the target, but changing from small to trivial effects sizes (ES) after SD. However, home advantage was 50.32 ± 19.06% before SD, after SD comeback the home advantage was 40.37 ± 26.08% (ES = 0.45). Conclusions:The return to football pitch without stadium supporters, affected some game and physical variables, as well as home advantage.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

An analysis of Bundesliga matches before and after social distancing by COVID-19

Santana

Bettega

Dellagrana

2021

Science and Medicine in Football

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“…The current study aims to test the changes in the home field advantage and its according match statistics as explanatory factors during the exclusion of spectators under COVID-19 (Bryson et al, 2020;Cueva, 2020;Deutscher et al, 2020;Dilger and Vischer, 2020;Ferraresi and Gucciardi, 2020;Fischer and Haucap, 2020;Leitner and Richlan, 2020;McCarrick et al, 2020;Reade et al, 2020;Scoppa, 2020;Tilp and Thaller, 2020;Jiménez Sánchez and Lavín, 2021). Specifically, because of the small sample sizes, we examined whether losing the home field advantage when playing behind closed doors is random rather than meaningful.…”

Section: The Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1 Perceptions of social support has been shown to increase athletes' self-esteem and function as a buffer against stress (Freeman and Rees, 2010), to facilitate resilience (Galli and Vealey, 2008;Fletcher and Sarkar, 2012;Hill et al, 2018), and to be important for career success in soccer (Van Yperen, 2009). Interestingly, a metaanalysis showed that the home-field advantage was stronger for soccer than any other sport (Jamieson, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Losing the Home Field Advantage When Playing Behind Closed Doors During COVID-19: Change or Chance?

Yperen

2021

Front. Psychol.

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Due to restrictions against the COVID-19 pandemic, spectators were not allowed to attend soccer matches at the end of the 2019/2020 season. Previous studies suggest that the absence of a home crowd changes the home field advantage in terms of match outcomes, offensive performance, and referee decisions. However, because of the small sample sizes, these changes may be random rather than meaningful. To test this, we created 1,000,000 randomized samples from the previous four seasons with the exact same number of matches played behind closed doors in Europe’s four most elite soccer leagues at the end of the 2019/2020 season. We found that across countries (Germany, Spain, Italy, and England), performance indices and referee decisions (except red cards) indeed changed to the detriment of the home team beyond the level of chance. However, this overall pattern could be ascribed to specific countries. Most importantly, the proportion of points won by the home teams declined significantly only in Germany, which was accompanied by a meaningful increase in (1) the proportion of goals scored by the away teams and (2) the proportion of yellow cards given to the home teams. We conclude that the home field advantage may indeed be lost when spectators are absent. However, in future studies, more detailed behavioral analyses are needed to determine the robustness and the behavioral determinants of this phenomenon across leagues and countries.

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“…In particular, some have demonstrated a largely robust and arguably causal reduction in the number of yellow cards awarded to the away team (e.g., Bryson et al, 2020;Endrich and Gesche, 2020;Scoppa, 2021). Similarly, some have observed that the foul ratio changed to the disadvantage of the home team without crowds present (e.g., Endrich and Gesche, 2020), while other aspects of the match, such as the total number of goals scored, remained largely unaffected (e.g., Cross and Uhrig, 2020;Sánchez and Lavín, 2020;Scoppa, 2021). However, there is no clear consensus on what happens when football is played behind closed doors.…”

Section: Closed Doors Football After Covid-19 Home Advantage and Refmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eliminating Supportive Crowds Reduces Referee Bias

2020

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We use a series of historical natural experiments in association football (soccer) to test whether social pressure affected behaviour and outcomes. We observe how the normal advantage for the home team of playing in their own stadium was eroded behind closed doors, with no supporters. After designing a three-step sample selection and regression strategy, to get as close as possible to a causal interpretation, the standout effect of an empty stadium was that referees cautioned visiting players significantly less often, by over a third of a yellow card per match or once for every twenty-two fouls. Closed doors matches were different because referees favoured the home team less in their decision making. These results add to the literature describing how home advantage in sports decreased during the Covid-19 pandemic, though many other factors changed at that time besides the emptying stadiums.

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Home advantage in European soccer without crowd

Cited by 39 publications

References 37 publications

An analysis of Bundesliga matches before and after social distancing by COVID-19

An analysis of Bundesliga matches before and after social distancing by COVID-19

Losing the Home Field Advantage When Playing Behind Closed Doors During COVID-19: Change or Chance?

Eliminating Supportive Crowds Reduces Referee Bias

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