National Culture and Home Advantage in Football

This article examines home advantage (HA) in association football (soccer). HA is the tendency for teams to perform better when playing on their home ground than when playing away. National variations in HA are found to be related to national cultural and social characteristics. HA tends to be elevated in countries with high levels of collectivism and in-group favoritism, and in countries where governance is prone to corruption and where the rule of law is not strictly adhered to. These findings are consistent with the concept of HA as a social phenomenon that derives from the influence of spectators on the match officials. HA is also found to be elevated in countries with diverse terrain, but the effects of culture persist even when diversity of terrain is controlled for. On the other hand, the hypothesis that HA is elevated in the presence of large crowds or potentially violent spectators was not supported.