Impact of absent crowds on technical and physical performances in the Chinese Soccer Super League

Abstract

PurposeSpectators have a significant impact on match performances in soccer, but to what extent crowd support contributes to the technical and physical performances remains unclear. This study aimed to (1) investigate the differences in terms of technical and physical performances with and without spectators; and (2) identify the key factors differentiating between win and loss when playing with and without the presence of an audience.MethodsOur study examined 794 performance records from 397 matches during the 2019–2020 seasons in the Chinese Soccer Super League. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO)-logistic regression was utilized to select significant predictors. Using an independent t-test and the Mann–Whitney non-parametric test explores the difference between matches with and without spectators. Key factors between win and loss were explored using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses.ResultsOur study found that cross (p < 0.01, ES = −0.24), shots (p < 0.001, ES = −0.25), and shot accuracy (p < 0.05, ES = −0.18) displayed decreasing trends whereas sprint distances (p < 0.05, ES = 0.16) presented an increasing trend without spectators comparing with the crowd support. Moreover, the above three technical variables were the main factors differentiating between wins and losses. Similarly, team and opponent quality remained important potential factors affecting the match outcome.ConclusionMatch outcome or team performance is determined by a myriad of factors, but there are clear differences in technical and physical performances between matches with and without the presence of an audience. Similarly, our study provides a better explanation for the impact of crowd support on match performances whereby coaches can deploy players and adjust match strategies for ultimate success.

The impact of crowd effects on home advantage of football matches during the COVID-19 pandemic—A systematic review

“…COVID-19 lockout [9, 12, 40-42, 44, 46]. This finding is in line with Chen et al (2022) [14], which found a significant decrease in pass, shot, and shot success rates in the Chinese Super League. The reason for the decline of the team's technical performance may lie in social factors.…”

“…The sample size ranged from 20 to 33,796 analysed matches, which consisted of 41 professional leagues from 30 different countries. Among them, 19 studies were conducted in the German Bundesliga [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47]50], followed by Spanish La Liga (17) [12, 14, 36-43, 45-49, 51, 52], Italian Serie A ( 16) [14, 35-43, 45-49, 53], English Premier League ( 14) [14,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][45][46][47][48][49], Portuguese first league (8) [39,40,42,[45][46][47][48]53], etc. Besides, the UEFA Champions League (2) [35,49]and UEFA European Football Championship (1) [35] were also analyzed.…”

“…All the participants are professional male football players. In addition, regarding the impact of playing conditions without spectators on a team's home advantage, 8 studies concluded that the impact was reflected in the match outcome [36][37][38][39][53][54][55], while 6 studies was about technical and tactical performance [14,[40][41][42][43][44], 4 studies was about physical performance [29, 30,50,51], and 10 studies was related to the referee bias [13,15,28,29,[45][46][47][48][49][50]. The variables of technical and tactical performance include: shots on goal, shots on target, goals scored, goals conceded, number of passes, pass accuracy, ball possessions, offside, crosses, and corners.…”

“…Possible explanations for this are that the players' physical and technical conditions have declined because of homebased training, which would increase the possibility of making mistakes and give opponents more opportunities to counterattack quickly [52]. A study on the Chinese Super League (CSL) has reached a similar result that the total and sprint distance of teams is increasing when the spectators were absent [14]. The reason may be that the CSL divided all teams into two tournament areas to reduce the possibility of infection, and all teams play in a specific place.…”

“…The Bundesliga was the first to restart the matches, but they banned spectators from entering and canceled pre-game ceremonies such as handshakes, a move that was followed by other European countries [13]. Even some national leagues have cancelled the home and away systems, the Argentine Super League and the Chinese Super League have arranged matches in neutral venues in a specific city, and the Korean professional football league has reduced the number of round robin matches in the regular season [14,15]. These practices provide a unique opportunity to further investigate the impact of crowd support on match outcomes.…”