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

ABSTRACT:

Background

Due to the unfortunate pandemic situation, the phenomena of home advantage and referee bias in sports have recently received a particular research attention, especially in association football. In this regard, several studies were conducted on the last portion of the 2019-20 season: the majority of them suggests a reduction-but not the elimination-of the two phenomena, with some exceptions in which no reduction was found or, at the other extreme, the phenomena were not observed at all.

Methods

The continuation of the pandemic made it possible to replicate the previous studies considering the complete 2020-21 season, thus with the important added value of having a fully balanced home/away schedule-and a higher number of matches-in the various leagues. In particular

SUBMITTER: Sors F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9261922 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature