No more advantage for the home team: Refereeing without social pressure in European elite football during the COVID-19 pandemic. Draft version 3 30-03-2021

Abstract

Introduction. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, European top football (soccer) leagues played the final rounds of season 2019/20 without or strongly limited attendance of supporters (i.e., “ghost games”). From a sport psychological perspective this situation poses a unique opportunity to investigate the crowd’s influence on sports professionals’ behavior and performance.Methods. A total of 1286 matches - played in the top leagues of Spain, England, Germany, Italy, Russia, Turkey, Austria and the Czech Republic - were analyzed for result, points, goals, fouls, bookings and reason for booking and contrasted between respective games of season 2018/19 (regular attendance) and season 19/20 (“ghost games”).Results. There are three main findings. First, the marked home advantage identified in the regular 2018/19 season vanishes almost completely in the “ghost games” of the 2019/20 season. Second, home teams lose significantly more matches, whereas away teams win significantly more matches in “ghost games” compared to regular games. Third, home teams are booked significantly more often with yellow cards for committing fouls in “ghost games” relative to regular games.Conclusion. We conclude that missing supporters in professional elite football leagues dissolve the “home advantage” effect. The missing support of a “home crowd” has also a direct effect on the experience, behavior and performance of home teams. Therefore home teams tend to compensate with increased aggressive behavior, resulting directly in more fierce tackles and ultimately in significantly more yellow cards awarded for foul play.

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

“…Other nations obtained less research as Portugal (14%), Austria (12%), North America (10%), Turkey (10%), France (8%) or Brazil, and 21 countries (Belgium, Scotland, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Greece, Czech Republic, Albania, Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Egypt, Japan, China, Australia and Costa Rica) individually accounted for less than 5% each. Notably, 4 studies (8%) analyzed more than 8 (Leitner & Richlan, 2021a, 2021bMcCarrick et al, 2021;Sedeaud et al, 2021). Only one study not reported the analyzed countries (Webb, 2021).…”

Depression Related to COVID-19, Coping, and Hopelessness in Sports Students

“…It is interesting to point out that once the athletes returned to stadiums, another challenge appeared: the so-called ‘ghostly game’ (to play matches without the attendance of supporters, with empty tribunes). Certain researchers [ 26 ] took advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study the effects of public absence on the behavior of professional football players. The behavior of the Austrian players was analyzed and compared in 20 “ghosts’ games.” Marlovits [ 27 ] discovered that the most difficult challenge for players was “adapting to a non-resonant environment”.…”