Vandoni Matteo, Ferraro Ottavia E, Gatti Alessandro, Marin Luca, Giuriato Matteo, Silvestri Dario, Lovecchio Nicola, Puci Mariangela V, Carnevale Pellino Vittoria
Laboratory of Adapted Motor Activity (LAMA), Department of Public Health, Experimental Medicine and Forensic Science, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy.
Unit of Biostatistics and Clinical Epidemiology, Department of Public Health, Experimental and Forensic Medicine, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy.
Sports (Basel). 2022 Jan 30;10(2):17. doi: 10.3390/sports10020017.
The home advantage (HA) affects football competitions, especially due to the presence of crowd support. Even though several studies demonstrated that HA (which is influenced by the crowd) decreased in recent years, the empty stadia caused by COVID-19 restrictions offered unique situations to explore and quantify HA. For this reason, we aimed to assess HA in two seasons of the major Italian Championships. We conducted an observational study with the data from the last three seasons of the Italian football championship A-B series, analyzing a total of 2.964 individual game scores. To quantify the HA, the number of points won at home was calculated as a percentage of the total number of points won, home and away. In every season and for every team classification, HA was found (scored points > 50% in home matches). We reported a difference in HA median score for Serie B. Additionally, a difference was found in Serie A for middle-ranking HA median scores in the two seasons compared (-value = 0.017), which was similarly found in Serie B (-value = 0.009). The number of penalties was lower in the season with a crowd compared to one without a crowd ( = 0.001). The HA did not disappear in empty stadiums, so there must be other contributing factors. Additionally, we found that the referees were biased by the presence of the crowd in favor of the home teams, and this result could be considered by the football association during referees' training and formation.
主场优势（HA）会影响足球比赛，尤其是因为有观众支持。尽管多项研究表明，近年来受观众影响的主场优势有所下降，但新冠疫情限制措施导致的球场空无观众提供了探索和量化主场优势的独特情况。因此，我们旨在评估意大利主要足球锦标赛两个赛季的主场优势。我们进行了一项观察性研究，使用了意大利足球甲级和乙级联赛过去三个赛季的数据，共分析了2964场比赛的个人比分。为了量化主场优势，将主场获胜的积分计算为总积分（主场和客场）的百分比。在每个赛季以及每个球队排名中，都发现了主场优势（主场比赛得分超过50%）。我们报告了乙级联赛主场优势中位数得分的差异。此外，在甲级联赛中，两个赛季的中等主场优势中位数得分也存在差异（p值 = 0.017），乙级联赛中也有类似发现（p值 = 0.009）。有观众的赛季判罚数量比没有观众的赛季少（p = 0.001）。主场优势在空场比赛中并未消失，所以一定还有其他影响因素。此外，我们发现裁判会受到观众在场的影响，偏袒主场球队，足球协会在裁判培训和培养过程中可以考虑这一结果。
