The Impact of Cheering on Sports Performance: Comparison of Serie A Statistics Before and During COVID-19

Abstract

Background: The role of cheering in home advantage in sports performance is unclear. As anti-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) restrictive measures have prevented crowds from entering stadiums, analysis of the past two football seasons can reveal important details. Objective: This paper aims to compare the last two football seasons in Italy with the previous six, highlighting changes due to the absence of cheering. Methods: We compared the average percentages of points obtained in home matches from 2013 to 2019 with those in the timelapse 2019-2021. The same operation was performed with referee statistics, such as fouls, penalties, and cards awarded against home teams. To do this, we used Welch's t-test and percentage increases. Pearson and Spearman's correlations were searched between the percentages of points collected in home matches and total points earned from 2013 to 2021. Results: The average percentage of points collected by teams in home matches dropped by 8% (Welch’s t = −4.3). The negative correlations between home collected points and total points in 2013-2019 timelapse have significantly diminished during the last two seasons (Welch’s t = 6.2), approaching zero. Penalties against home teams have increased by 30% (Welch’s t = 2.6), reaching 51.4%. Conclusions: This research provides statistical evidence supporting the crowd’s impact on sports and refereeing performance in Serie A. However, our results also suggest that part of the home advantage is linked to factors independent of the audience. Future research can deepen the above phenomena from a theoretical-psychological point of view.

Is crowd support important in professional football’s home advantage? A systematic review based on covid-19 effect<b></b>

“…These results indicate the importance of the fans when playing at home, above travel, familiarity with the facility (García-Rubio et al, 2015). The findings support social facilitation theories (Zajonc, 1965), where crowd support enhances player performance, or territoriality (Rovetta & Abate, 2021). The most used variables (performance indicators) in the studies were points, goals and cards.…”

A complete season with attendance restrictions confirms the relevant contribution of spectators to home advantage and referee bias in association football

“…This observation was further confirmed in a systematic literature review by Leitner et al (2022) , who identified 26 studies that analyzed the last portion of the 2019–20 season, when all matches were played behind closed doors. Out of these 26 studies, only six did not observe a significant and consistent overall decrease of the home advantage and referee bias in the considered leagues ( Almeida & Werlayne, 2021 ; Benz & Lopez, 2021 ; Krawczyk & Strawinski, 2020 ; Matos et al, 2021 ; Ramchandani & Millar, 2021 ; Wunderlich et al, 2021 ), while the other 20 ones did observe a significant decrease of these phenomena ( Bryson et al, 2021 ; Correia-Oliveira & Andrade-Souza, 2021 ; Cross & Uhrig, 2020 ; Cueva, 2020 ; Dilger & Vischer, 2020 ; Endrich & Gesche, 2020 ; Ferraresi & Gucciardi, 2020 , 2021 ; Fischer & Haucap, 2020 ; Hill & Van Yperen, 2021 ; Jimenez Sanchez & Lavin, 2021 ; Konaka, 2021 ; Leitner & Richlan, 2021a ; Link & Anzer, 2021 ; McCarrick et al, 2021 ; Rovetta & Abate, 2021 ; Santana, Bettega & Dellagrana, 2021 ; Scoppa, 2021 ; Sors et al, 2021 ; Tilp & Thaller, 2020 ). Considering exclusively the peer-reviewed, multi-leagues studies, they found that nine out of 13 studies observed such a decrease ( Bryson et al, 2021 ; Correia-Oliveira & Andrade-Souza, 2021 ; Ferraresi & Gucciardi, 2021 ; Hill & Van Yperen, 2021 ; Jimenez Sanchez & Lavin, 2021 ; Leitner & Richlan, 2021a ; McCarrick et al, 2021 ; Scoppa, 2021 ; Sors et al, 2021 ).…”

The influence of spectators on home advantage and referee bias in national teams matches: insights from UEFA Nations League

“…Indeed, various studies observed that, in these matches, both phenomena decreased with respect to previous seasons' matches played in presence of spectators. In particular, a systematic review by Leitner et al (2022) showed that the majority of studies -20 out of 26highlighted a significant decrease of the home advantage (Bryson et al, 2021;Correia-Oliveira & Andrade-Souza, 2021;Cross & Uhrig, 2020;Cueva, 2020;Dilger & Vischer, 2020;Endrich & Gesche, 2020;Ferraresi & Gucciardi, 2020Fischer & Haucap, 2021;Hill & Van Yperen, 2021;Jimenez Sanchez & Lavin, 2021;Konaka, 2021;Leitner & Richlan, 2021;Link & Anzer, 2021;McCarrick et al, 2021;Rovetta & Abate, 2021;Santana et al, 2021;Scoppa, 2021;Sors et al, 2021;Tilp & Thaller, 2020), while only six studies did not reveal a similar effect (Almeida & Werlayne, 2021;Benz & Lopez, 2021;Krawczyk & Strawinski, 2020;Matos et al, 2021;Ramchandani & Millar, 2021;Wunderlich et al, 2021), reasonably due to sampling and other methodological choices (e.g., leagues, number of matches, periods that were compared). Although all these studies could only rely on samples with unbalanced home-away schedules (a well-known methodological issue in this research field), the majority of them controlled for the relative strength of the teams playing against each other (e.g., correcting analyses for the points per match ratio), thus reducing the influence of the unbalanced schedules.…”