{"id":1573,"date":"2017-08-08T12:15:28","date_gmt":"2017-08-08T12:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/?p=1573"},"modified":"2017-08-08T12:57:40","modified_gmt":"2017-08-08T12:57:40","slug":"uefa-womens-euro-2017-the-power-of-home-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/?p=1573","title":{"rendered":"UEFA Women\u2019s EURO 2017: The power of \u2018Home Advantage\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Helen Owton<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Sunday 6th August 2017, the Netherlands stormed the final after a\u00a0stunning 4-2 win against Denmark having knocked out the Lionesses in a surprising win. At the start of the tournament, however, they were ranked 9th with favourites Germany being knocked out by Denmark in the quarter finals. When the hosts win it adds weight to the argument that \u2018home advantage\u2019 is a powerful weapon, but surely, home advantage can\u2019t be that powerful?<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SrscHFoIKlo<\/a><\/p>\n

Home advantage<\/strong>
\nFirstly, the idea of home for an individual performer may be very different, however, and the concept of \u2018home\u2019 is thus one that differs for each sport and its performers. Nonetheless, home advantage is a phenomena which has been a hotly debated contentious issue but appears to be very real. Research on home advantage found that home teams are more likely to win 53-69% of the time (Courneya and Carron, 1992). Indeed, research shows that nations hosting international sporting events can improve their medal count by around 25% (UK Sport, 2011). For example, in London 2012, \u2018Team GB\u2019 achieved a 27.8% increase in medal count (47 in 2008; 65 in 2012).<\/p>\n

Various reasons have been sought to explain this home advantage phenomena. The presence of a supportive audience appears to be the most critical factor (Cox, 2012) and the size, density and proximity are important aspects to consider when evaluating the influence a crowd has which can activate the autonomic nervous system producing physiological and psychological arousal. This of course could have positive or negative effects on both teams. For example, a home team might feel \u2018overwhelmed\u2019 by the pressure of such a momentous occasion but an away team may experience the pressure in a different way.<\/p>\n

Other factors include the issue of travelling to distant venues for visiting athletes; the unfamiliarity of stadiums and changing rooms for away teams, for example (Pollard, 2006). Nonetheless, the home advantage is dependent on a number of factors, including the familiarity of surroundings, the effect of travel on the opposition, an evolved response to defend home territory and the impact of the belief that we are more likely to be successful at home. Additionally, some of these factors are interrelated because the home crowd\u2019s support might indirectly influence the thoughts and actions of the referee as well as the opposing team.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Lucy Bronze mentions that the game against Netherlands was ‘a different game’ and\u00a0needed to ‘silence the crowd’ and that referee decisions didn’t go their way.<\/p>\n