Artificial Pitches and Unfair Home Advantage in Professional Football

van Ours, Jan

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3045154

Artificial Pitches and Unfair Home Advantage in Professional Football

Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper 17093/V

12 Pages Posted: 2 Oct 2017

See all articles by Jan van Ours

Jan van Ours

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Erasmus School of Economics (ESE)

Date Written: September 28, 2017

Abstract

In the Netherlands, in the top tier of professional football some teams play their home matches on an artificial pitch while other teams play their home matches on natural grass. This paper investigates whether or not home teams who play on an artificial pitch have an additional home advantage to the regular home advantage. The main finding is, that this is indeed the case. This implies that artificial pitches generate an unfair home advantage in a competitive sport.

Keywords: professional football, unfair competition, artificial pitch, home advantage

JEL Classification: Z21, L83

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

van Ours, Jan, Artificial Pitches and Unfair Home Advantage in Professional Football (September 28, 2017). Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper 17093/V, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3045154 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3045154