The Behaviour of Home Advantage during the COVID-19 Pandemic in European Rink Hockey Leagues
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Date
2022
Authors
Arboix-Alió, Jordi
Trabal, Guillem
Buscà, Bernat
Peña, Javier
Arboix, Adrià
Hileno González, Raúl
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Abstract
The primary purpose of the present study was to compare the home advantage (HA) and
the home team performance in the most relevant European rink hockey leagues (Spanish, Portuguese
and Italian), considering the presence or absence of spectators in the competition venues due to the
effect of COVID-19 restrictions. The sample was composed of 1665 rink hockey matches (654 from the
Spanish league, 497 from the Portuguese league, and 514 from the Italian league) played between the
2018–2019 and 2020–2021 seasons. The HA and match variables comparisons were established using
several negative binomial regression models. Results showed that the effect of HA did not disappear
despite playing without spectators but decreased from 63.99% to 57.41% (p = 0.002). Moreover,
the comparison of the match variables showed that playing with spectators benefited local teams’
performance, especially in the Portuguese and Italian leagues. Playing with spectators favoured
local team performance in rink hockey matches, which is more evident in some analysed leagues.
However, as HA does not disappear entirely without spectators, it is necessary to study other relevant
performance factors that are not directly or indirectly attributable to crowd behaviour in rink hockey
performance analyses.
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International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2022, vol. 19, núm. 1, 228