No Home Bias in Ghost Games

Dilger Alexander, Vischer Lars

Abstract

Because of the COVID-19-pandemic the men's first German football league(Bundesliga) had to take a break before it was permitted to finish the season2019/20. However, only ghost games without spectators in the stadiums wereallowed in this finishing phase. Comparing these 83 games without spectatorswith the corresponding 83 regular games between the same teams withspectators before, we find that the normal advantage for the home teamdisappears. There were 48.2% home wins with spectators and only 32.5%without. This decrease is statistically significant. There were 32.5% away winsbefore the break and 44.6% thereafter, while the draws increased from 19.3%to 22.9%. However, these increases are not statistically significant. One reasonfor the lost home advantage is the disappearance of a home bias by the referees,who gave significantly less extra time and also less yellow and red cards to theaway team.