Home advantage in Australian soccer

ObjectivesThe aims of this study were to quantify the magnitude of home advantage (HA) in Australian soccer and to investigate how home-team crowd support and away-team travel may contribute to it.DesignA paired design was used wherein each match contributed two observations, one for the home team and one for the away team.MethodsThe data used in this study were all matches from the first seven seasons (2005/06–2011/12) of the Australian A-League – the major soccer league in Australia. Repeated measures Poisson regression analysis was used to investigate the effect that crowd size and density, distance and direction travelled by away teams, and crossing time zones may have on HA.ResultsHA in terms of the percentage of competition points gained by home teams in the A-League averaged 58% over the study period. HA increased significantly with increasing number of time zones crossed by away teams (p < 0.001). HA also appeared to increase with increasing crowd size (p = 0.07) but only up to about 20,000 persons. Crowd density, distance travelled and direction travelled were not independently associated with HA.ConclusionsThe present results suggest that in soccer competitions where time zones are crossed, travel effects such as jet lag may play an even greater role in HA than home-team crowd support. Travel management programs aimed at reducing the effects of jet lag could significantly improve away team performance in Australian soccer.