Home Advantage in the Czech Football League Before, During and After the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic disease had a huge impact on professional football and led to the introduction of significant spectatorrestrictions. The most significant restriction was the banning of spectators from entering the stadium. This paper evaluates home advantage and the extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on home advantage in men’s professional football in the Czech top football league. The research findings can be useful in various decision-making areas, such as team game strategies or betting strategies. The research compares the results of matches played with spectators with the results of matches played without spectators or with spectator restrictions. The method chosen to quantify home advantage considers points and goals scored and uses a two-sample Mann-Whitney test. The COVID-19 pandemic had no statistically significant effect on homeadvantage. Home advantage persisted even without spectators, although to a lesser extent. The research concluded that home advantage may be reduced but not lost in the absence of spectators. However, more detailed analyses are needed in future studies to identify the main determinants of this phenomenon across football leagues and countries.

Keywords

• sport
• soccer
• spectators
• attendance
• coronavirus