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FANZONE
DO FANS REALLY IMPACT
BY DYLAN BETTENCOURT
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a massive shift in sport of fans being unable to attend matches. Home ground advantage is an aspect of the game that many teams pride themselves on and depend on, to gather as many wins as possible. However, does the removal of fans remove the fear factor of playing away games? In this issue, Soccerzela looks at the top four European leagues which resumed league football in order to analyse how and if, home ground advantage was affected. Premier League Before the coronavirus paused footballing action in England, out of a possible 288 fixtures, the home team came out victorious 129 times, whereas the away teams were only able to amass 87 victories – with 72 draws in the process. These figures
SOCCERZELA.CO.ZA
FOOTBALL RESULTS? represent a 45%-win percentage for home teams and away teams with a 30%-win percentage with the remaining percentages being stalemates. June saw the restart of Premier League action without fans in attendance. The remaining period of the top flight saw 92 fixtures taking place, with the home team amounting 43 wins and away teams winning 29 times – the remaining 20 fixtures ended as a draw. There was a slight difference in win percentages with both home and away percentages only increasing 2% each after their return. La Liga Satander The topflight of Spanish football came to a halt in March 2020. In
this period before the stoppage, the home teams were the victors 48% of the time with the away teams only managing a small 24- win rate. With 28% of fixtures ending in a draw. The return of football saw a huge change in La Liga as the away teams wins increased by 8%, winning 35 out of 110 fixtures. The home team’s dominance suffered a drop in percentage as they won 45 of the 110 fixtures, giving them a 41%-win rate, a fall of seven percent. Bundesliga The Bundesliga without a doubt saw the biggest change before and after the restart. There were a total of 224 games before the
ISSUE 09
