The Behaviour of Home Advantage during the COVID-19 Pandemic in European Rink Hockey Leagues

Jordi Arboix-Alió, Guillem Trabal, Bernat Buscà, Javier Peña, Adrià Arboix and Raúl Hileno
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Jordi Arboix-Alió: Department of Sports Science, Ramon Llull University, FPCEE Blanquerna, 08025 Barcelona, Spain
Guillem Trabal: Department of Physical Activity Sciences, University of Vic—Central University of Catalonia, 08500 Vic, Spain
Bernat Buscà: Department of Sports Science, Ramon Llull University, FPCEE Blanquerna, 08025 Barcelona, Spain
Javier Peña: Department of Physical Activity Sciences, University of Vic—Central University of Catalonia, 08500 Vic, Spain
Adrià Arboix: Cerebrovascular Division, Department of Neurology, Hospital Universitari del Sagrat Cor, Universitat de Barcelona, 08029 Barcelona, Spain
Raúl Hileno: National Institute of Physical Education of Catalonia (INEFC), University of Lleida, 25192 Lleida, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 19, issue 1, 1-12

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.

Keywords: roller hockey; coronavirus; match variables; performance analysis; crowd behaviour (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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