Fans

Does home advantage still matter with no fans in stadiums?

A major advantage is having your own fans cheering you on, but how does having empty stands impact on-pitch results?

 
8:00am on Wednesday 16th September 2020
By
Martin Macdonald

When elite leagues around Europe returned after lockdown, having no supporters in attendance was a much-debated issue in terms of the relative impact on home and away results.

Having fans cheering you on for 90 minutes versus the empty shells that games are currently being competed in has been viewed as a potential leveller.

But has it played out like this? CIES Observatory have produced some figures.

READ MORE:

Lampard: Chelsea have aspirations of competing with Liverpool

Barcelona agree fee with Lyon for Memphis

Bellingham becomes BVB's youngest ever goalscorer with debut strike

Odegaard excluded from first Madrid squad of the season

Home Advantage Post-Lockdown

The answer is that home advantage is definitely not defunct, but not quite as effective as it was.

CIES looked at how home teams performed at their own stadium in the years preceding lockdown compared to the matches played behind closed doors.

Looking at 63 leagues worldwide, they discovered that between January 2015 and March 2020, 44.3% of fixtures were won by the home side.

When looking at the prospect of an empty stadium, one hypothesis could have been that this figure would become lower and that did happen, but only just, as after lockdown 42.2% of matches were won by the home side. This figure did, however, fluctuate among the respective leagues.

The leagues with the biggest drop in home wins were the Greek Super League, the Austrian Bundesliga, and then the German Bundesliga. These competitions witnessed pretty significant % swings in favour of the away sides during that period, though the size of the sample must be taken into account.

Top 10 leagues with biggest % drop of home wins

LEAGUE% CHANGE IN HOME WINS
Super League 1 (Greece)-15.1%
Austrian Bundesliga (Austria)-15%
German Bundesliga (Germany)-14.1%
V.League 1(Vietnam)-11.6%
K League 2 (S.Korea)-10.7%
Serie B (Brazil)-9.3%
Allsvenskan (Sweden)-9.1%
Chinese Super League (China)-9%
Russian Premier League (Russia)-8.9%
1.SNL (Slovenia)-8.9%

Latest news

Serie A

Capello carries Juve back to the summit of Italian football - Serie A 2004-05

The Bianconeri would later be stripped of this Serie A title...

  • 11 hours
Ligue 1

Montpellier stun French football to claim maiden title - Ligue 1 in 2011/12

Olivier Giroud and co. put themselves on the map by winning the French top flight for the very first time

  • 12 hours
Bundesliga

When Magath guided Bayern to another Bundesliga crown - the Bundesliga in 2005/06

The Bavarian giants claimed the double in Germany, further solidifying their dominance under Felix Magath

  • 13 hours
La Liga

When Ronaldinho moved onto another level - La Liga in 2005/06

The Brazilian moved into the realm of greatness in a near-flawless season

  • 14 hours
Premier League

When Ronaldinho sent Barcelona on their journey to greatness - La Liga in 2004/05

The arrival of the Brazilian the previous year was the catalyst for a return to the top at Camp Nou

  • 15 hours
Premier League

When Man Utd blew Arsenal away to win three in a row - the Premier League in 2000/01

The Red Devils hammered their nearest rivals 6-1 during a season where everyone else trailed in their wake

  • 16 hours

Most read