Abstract

JIMENEZ-SANCHEZ, Á; LAVIN, JM  and  ENDARA, DF. Repercussions of playing without an audience on home advantage, refereeing decisions and game components. CPD [online]. 2021, vol.21, n.2, pp.198-212.  Epub May 16, 2022. ISSN 1989-5879.

Social facilitation determines that the presence of spectators at sporting events is a favorable factor when playing at home. The objective of this research is to analyze the difference in points and goals according to the presence or absence of a crowd, as well as to study the possible changes in refereeing decisions and in the style of playing for both local teams and visitors to this new situation generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample is made up of the games played in the 2019th-2020th season corresponding to eight European football leagues: Germany, Spain, Italy, England and Austria. The results show that there are no significant differences between playing with or without the public, except in the first German and Spanish categories. However, an increase in defensive components and a reduction in offense are observed in teams that played at home without spectators. As a consequence, there are also changes in the referees' decisions who called fewer fouls and cards for the visitors, except in both the German and Austrian categories. These findings do not support the theory of social facilitation in a generalized way, but they do support its relationship with aggressiveness in local players and even with referee's decisions. The possible implications lead especially to the psychological preparation and tactical training of both players and referees to face matches without an audience in the stadiums.

Keywords : social facilitation; football; referees; game components; spectators.

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