An ecological dynamics rationale to explain home advantage in professional football

José Gama (), Gonçalo Dias (), Micael Couceiro, Pedro Passos (), Keith Davids and João Ribeiro ()
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José Gama: Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Gonçalo Dias: Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Micael Couceiro: Ingeniarius, Ltd., Portugal3Artificial Perception for Intelligent Systems and Robotics (AP4ISR), Institute of Systems and Robotics (ISR), University of Coimbra, Portugal
Pedro Passos: CIPER, Faculty of Human Kinetics, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal
Keith Davids: Centre for Sports Engineering Research, Sheffield Hallam University, UK6FiDiPro Programme, Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
João Ribeiro: Faculty of Sports Sciences and Physical Education, University of Porto, Portugal

International Journal of Modern Physics C (IJMPC), 2016, vol. 27, issue 09, 1-17

Abstract: Despite clear findings, research on home advantage in team sports lacks a comprehensive theoretical rationale for understanding why this phenomenon is so compelling. The aim of this study was to provide an explanatory theoretical rationale in ecological dynamics for the influence of home advantage observed in research on professional football. We recorded 30 competitive matches and analyzed 13958 passes, from one highly successful team in the Portuguese Premier League, during season 2010/2011. Performance data were analyzed using the Match Analysis Software—Amisco® (version 3.3.7.25), allowing us to characterize team activity profiles. Results were interpreted from an ecological dynamics perspective, explaining how task and environmental constraints of a competitive football setting required performers to continuously co-adapt to teammate behaviors. Despite slight differences in percentage of ball possession when playing home or away, the number of passes achieved by the team, while in possession of the ball, was quite different between home or away venues. When playing at home, the number of passes performed by the team was considerably higher than when playing away. The explanation proposed in this study for a home advantage effect can be understood from studying interpersonal coordination tendencies of team sports players as agents in a complex adaptive system.

Keywords: Professional football; home advantage; ecological dynamics; interacting constraints; co-adaptation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1142/S0129183116501023

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