Crowds and the Timing of Goals and Referee Decisions1

This paper investigates how crowds affect the timing of events during football matches. In theory, the presence of fans influences the urgency of the players on the field, and the magnitude of this effect grows during the match. Thus, crowds should lead to a faster increase during the match in goals scored, yellow cards, red cards, and penalty kicks. We test the hypothesis using a data set including pandemic ghost games and we find strong support for the hypothesis as it relates to goals, yellow cards, and penalty kicks but not as it relates to red cards. © The Author(s) 2023.

Home Advantage in City and Same-Stadium Derbies: Evidence from European Professional Football

The search for the main factors of the home advantage phenomenon in professional European football is a hot topic for scientific research. We assessed the contribution of individual factors to the home advantage using the statistical results of European city derbies, same-stadium derbies, and matches of the championships of microstates. We compared the statistical results of the European city and stadium derbies, as well as matches of the championships of Luxembourg and Malta, played in the presence of spectators in the stands (2017–2020) and without spectators in the Covid-19 pandemic (2020–2021). The number of home victories was compared with the number of away victories using a paired t-test, and the impact of the number of spectators in the stands on the outcome of matches was assessed based on a logistic regression model. Home advantage was present in European city derbies and Luxembourg championship matches before the Covid-19 pandemic. For popular city derbies from Europe's elite leagues, home advantage has been maintained through the Covid-19 pandemic with no spectators in the stands. There was no home advantage in stadium derbies and Maltese championship matches. We conclude that the home advantage can be determined by the influence of only one factor – familiarity of the players of the home team with the football stadium. The information presented in the article can be used by players, coaches and managers of professional football clubs to improve the performance of the game. © Siberian Federal University. All rights reserved.

Contemporary Concept About the Factors of Home Advantage in European Professional Football

Home advantage is an accepted phenomenon in contemporary European football. The home team is more efficient and wins more games. Nonetheless, the factors contributing are still debated. Prominent factors for the home advantage are the presence of supporters and their influence on players, referees bias, travel of the away team to the venue of the match, hormonal effects or territoriality protection, familiarity with the venue of the match, special tactics of playing at home and away. During the global pandemic COVID‑19, most major European football championships had to be played without supporters. This provided a unique opportunity for researchers to explore the contribution of the above factors to home advantage. This article presents an analysis of recent literature data aimed at investigating the factors contributing to home advantage in European professional football. The study found that all of the above factors can influence home advantage. However, it has not yet been possible to determine the main dominant factor of home advantage. Home advantage is a multifactorial phenomenon and exact causal relationships remain to be determined. The strength of the factors varies depending on the development level of football and the geographical size of the country, the skill of the players and teams in the professional league. The information presented in the review can be used by coaches, managers and sports leaders to develop a modern game strategy, taking into account home advantage factors. © Siberian Federal University. All rights reserved.

The causal impacts of empty stadiums on women's sports activities: Evidence from European football leagues

This paper examines the effect of spectators on women's football games. COVID-19 and related restrictions provide a unique opportunity with an adequate sample size to test the effect of lockdown on sports activities. Studies have recently exploited this opportunity for men's football to better understand the potential causes of home advantage and, more specifically, assess the psychological consequences when matches are played without supporters. Despite the increased scientific interest, there was only one paper that focused on women's football. Therefore, we aim to contribute to this research field by considering matches from four major European women's football leagues. The findings suggest that for three of these leagues, lockdown has a statistically significant effect on the sanctioned yellow cards by either reducing the number of yellow cards sanctioned to the away teams or increasing the number of yellow cards sanctioned to the home teams. Nonetheless, lockdown does not affect any final match outcomes;therefore, it does not significantly affect the magnitude of home advantage for women's games. © 2023

The introduction of the Video Assistant Referee supports the fairness of the game – An analysis of the home advantage in the German Bundesliga

The introduction of the video assistant referee (VAR) was a landmark in soccer history, yet it is not empirically examined whether the technology contributes to the most supreme value of the game: fair play. Because referees are said to be one driving cause of the home advantage (HA), the aim of this study was to examine whether the HA changed in the German Bundesliga since the implementation of the VAR in the season 2017/18. We examined a total of 2448 games during the four seasons before and after the implementation of the VAR with regards to the game outcomes (i.e., goals and points) as well as indicators of referee bias (i.e., fouls, yellow cards, 2nd yellow cards, red cards, and penalty kicks) for both the home and the away teams. Findings indicate that the VAR influences game outcomes to a fairer degree. Specifically, (i) we found statistical evidence for the HA before, but not after the implementation of the VAR. However, (ii) these results need to be interpreted with caution because direct assessments of the change induced by the introduction of the VAR are not statistically significant. Finally, (iii) with the implementation of the VAR, fewer fouls were committed by both the home and the away team.

The causal impacts of empty stadiums on women's sports activities: Evidence from European football leagues

This paper examines the effect of spectators on women's football games. COVID-19 and related restrictions provide a unique opportunity with an adequate sample size to test the effect of lockdown on sports activities. Studies have recently exploited this opportunity for men's football to better understand the potential causes of home advantage and, more specifically, assess the psychological consequences when matches are played without supporters. Despite the increased scientific interest, there was only one paper that focused on women's football. Therefore, we aim to contribute to this research field by considering matches from four major European women's football leagues. The findings suggest that for three of these leagues, lockdown has a statistically significant effect on the sanctioned yellow cards by either reducing the number of yellow cards sanctioned to the away teams or increasing the number of yellow cards sanctioned to the home teams. Nonetheless, lockdown does not affect any final match outcomes;therefore, it does not significantly affect the magnitude of home advantage for women's games.

The Effect of COVID-19 on Home Advantage in Women’s Soccer: Evidence From Swedish Damallsvenskan

Most studies of the effect of COVID-19 restrictions on home advantage have been conducted on men’s soccer, with the women’s game lacking scientific attention. The present study fills this gap by investigating games in Swedish Damallsvenskan women’s soccer league. Comparing games in the 2019 and 2020 seasons, we find a slight, but not statistically significant reduction in home advantage in games without crowds in terms of goals scored and points achieved. However, unlike in most studies on men’s soccer, we find that away teams received significantly more yellow cards in games without crowds compared to games with crowds. We discuss our results in the context of the findings in men’s soccer. JEL Classification: D00, J71, L00, Z13, Z20. © 2022 SAGE Publications.

INVESTIGATING THE HOME ADVANTAGE IN THE WORLD'S PRESTIGIOUS FOOTBALL LEAGUES BEFORE AND AFTER THE OUTBREAK OF COVID-19

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the COVID-19 (absence of spectators) on the results of football teams in 5 popular leagues in the world (English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish LaLiga, German Bundesliga and French Ligue 1). This research was descriptive-comparative. Therefore, the results of football teams were analyzed from the 2015/16 season to the middle of the 2019/20 season (before COVID) and the continuation of the 2019/20 season to the 2020/21 season (after COVID). The number of matches analyzed was 10,853, including 2,546 after COVID matches. The variables that were analyzed were: home Advantage, ratio of goals scored (HGSR) and ratio of goals conceded (HGCR) in home games. The results of t-test showed a significant decrease in home advantage (p=0.044) only in the German Bundesliga. In addition, in the EPL, none of the variables showed a significant difference. In the Italian, German and French leagues, HGCR increased significantly after COVID pandemic (p<0.04). In the Spanish league, HGSR showed a significant decrease (p<0.04). In this study, only the absence of spectators over home advantage was examined. Although spectators may influence the results, teams still perform better at home in the COVID pandemic duration. So, we can conclude the location of the events can be important. Also, the referees can be unfairly biased in favor of one side or another by the presence of crowds. Hence, future research may examine other factors.

The impact of differing audience sizes on referees and team performance from a North American perspective

The COVID-19 pandemic provides a natural experimental framework to comprehensively test the effect of crowds on both referees and players. We examine this from a North American perspective, using data from three major leagues: the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL) and National Hockey League (NHL). In all three leagues in the 2020–2021 season, matches were played either in empty stadiums or before diverse audience sizes. We find that the lockdown affects NBA and NFL results, by lowering the prospects of winning and the expected scoring points of the home team, when games are played without an audience. Conversely, the lockdown does not substantially influence the outcomes of NHL games. We also examine the effect of audience size on game outcomes using historical observations from the past decade, when no lockdown measures were in force. Interestingly, a larger audience size increases the chance of winning and the expected scoring points of the visiting team for NFL games. No significant effect of the audience size on match outcomes is observed for NBA or NHL games. Regarding referee decisions, spectators do not significantly influence referee calls of NHL matches. As for NBA and NFL, the lockdown significantly increases the total number of referee calls but does not prompt more biased decisions towards either of the teams. Finally, a larger audience leads to referee calls more favourable to the visiting team for NFL games. These results extend the literature regarding crowd pressure on the behaviour of players and officials, with an indication that the specific sports activity has a pivotal role in the response to a cheering audience.

The Effect of the Crowd on Home Bias: Evidence from NBA Games During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The present study examines a specific type of referee biases, home bias, and analyzes how the presence of fans affects home bias by using NBA games played in empty arenas during the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2020-2021 season and matches played before the pandemic from 2017 to 2020. This research also uses a unique data set from NBA Last Two Minute Reports to assess referees' performance at the play level. The findings show crowd support does not cause referees to treat home and away teams differently in crucial situations during the NBA regular season, contrary to the results in most prior studies.

The sound of silence in association football: Home advantage and referee bias decrease in matches played without spectators.

The home advantage and unconscious referee bias are two well-documented phenomena in professional sports, especially in association football. Among the various factors determining them, the crowd noise is considered as one of the most relevant; yet, the majority of previous studies could not isolate its contribution. The possibility to study the effects of crowd noise - or, better, of its absence - in an ecological context was given by the matches played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether home advantage and referee bias still occur (and to what extent) during matches played in absence of spectators. In particular, the focus was on the first and second divisions of the top four countries in the UEFA ranking, for a total of 841 matches behind closed doors. The hypothesis was that, if these phenomena are largely due to the effect of crowd noise, the absence of spectators should reduce their occurrence. Various parameters for each of the two phenomena were considered, and the analyses revealed a reduction of home advantage and the absence of referee bias. The results bring further support to the claim that, among all the factors contributing to home advantage and referee bias, crowd noise has a relevant role. Thus, spectators can significantly contribute to determine the dynamics and the outcomes of professional football matches.