What Has Football in Empty Stadiums Shown About Home Advantage?

[KingsX]

This was in the Economist last month.  A dive (across 16 European leagues) into changes from before to after lockdown.  They looked at three things: referee bias, shots taken, and results. 

 

- Referees’ decisions have massively changed from favoring home sides to being neutral (measured by bookings).  As long posited, this is likely the major effect of home crowds -- more than on the players.

- As measure of a balance of play, home sides’ share of shots on goal has also dropped across most leagues.  But not by much.  They figure visiting sides still set up defensively. 

- End results have only changed slightly.  Home sides have dropped from taking 58% of points to 56%.

 

Anyway, interesting … but not terribly surprising …

 

[spacemunky]

I think empty stadiums are great.

 

Fans are usually just a nuisance anyway.