Home advantage in the soccer: comparison between the Brazilian championship and the main national leagues of the World

Abstract

Home advantage is a phenomenon that has been investigated in many sporting competition. Nevertheless, data from Brazilian soccer and comparisons between different leagues are rare in the literature. Thus, the objective of this study was to perform a survey of the advantage of playing at home in the first division of the Brazilian Championship (Série A), by means of percentage of available points won while playing at home, and to compare this with the principal national leagues of the world for the seasons from 2002/03 to 2006/07. The results showed that there was a significantly greater advantage to playing at home for teams in the Brazilian Championship (64.9 ± 2.2%; p< 0.05) than for those competing in Germany, Argentina, Spain, England, Italy or Portugal. There was no statistical difference when Brazilian results were compared with those from the French league (p=0.050). It was concluded that the advantage of playing at home was greater in the Brazilian championship than in the principal national soccer leagues of the world during the period analyzed. Factors that possibly contribute to this finding were discussed.