Index

Introduction

The pandemic that stopped the entire world in 2020 brought new ways of acting, of thinking, changed all areas and sport wasn’t different. After three months of confinement, the return of football was and is still made with no attendances. This provides interesting data to understand how the home advantage really acts and feels.

Whoever played football in past knows that playing at home is or was much more than just having the supporters cheering, it happens still in amateur football. Training on a daily basis on a pitch, on a field, on a stadium, allows the players to find references, very important in the set pieces, in the centers, even to shoot. Those references allow a more accurate definition. Even small holes or humps can be essential in the decision within a match when you know the pitch so well.

Professional football is different nowadays. Since the 80’s the spread of club academies left the big stadia only to the matches and those references started to be lost –you need to train daily or very regularly to find them and adjust your precision with it, it’s only achievable with training, training, training! Home advantage gained further importance with the supporters and the support they give over the knowledge of the pitch by the practice in it.

Naturally, in some countries home supporters are a less positive leverage and create negative pressure, which contrasts with the buildup developed in some magnificent stages, whatever the result or the club’s situation.

The football return in this 2019/20 season was made without public in the stands, without attendances, and the results started to shift a little, it was created the idea that the home advantage factor was less favorable, a myth grew on it.

Is it so? Do these advantage? empty stadia matches really interfere with the home

It would be easy to merely compare the winning percentage of the leagues in the season, before and after the Covid-19 mandatory break, but that would give insufficient data to really observe, so this study takes a look at all the seasons in