Abstract

Covid-19 pandemic dramatically affected soccer. Many competitions played without an audience in the 2019/2020 season. The aim of this study was to analyze Points (P), Goals Forward (GF), and Goals Away (GA) per game in Turkish Super League (TSL), Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga, and Serie A before (BP) and After Pandemic restrictions (AP) during the 2019/2020 season separately and together. The tables of five leagues were separated into two terms as BP and AP, and P, GF, and GA were calculated for each period. Average P, GF, and GA per game were statistically compared. Paired samples t-test and paired samples correlations were used for statistical analysis. The obtained results showed that home P and GA increased AP in TSL without statistical significance. In parallel, home P and GF increased AP in Premier League and La Liga and showed significant correlations (p<0.05). In contrast, in Bundesliga and La Liga, home P and GF decreased AP with significant correlation (p<0.05). In La Liga, away GA significantly decreased AP (p=0.010148*). When all results of all teams (n=98) were compared together, home P (r=0.4371; p=0.000007***) and GA decreased AP and showed significant correlations. Furthermore, away P (r=0.386661; p=0.000084***) and GF (r=0.505488; p=0.000001***) increased with significant correlation. These results showed that the Covid-19 pandemic dissimilarly affected different leagues. However, overall results showed that home performances decreased and away results increased AP.

Keywords: Home advantage; Pandemic; Soccer teams; Sport fans