scholarly journals No Fans–No Pressure: Referees in Professional Football During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Christian Leitner ◽  
Fabio Richlan
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Traditional Method ◽  
Social Pressure ◽  
Statistical Analyses ◽  
Professional Football ◽  
Psychological Perspective ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Home Advantage ◽  
European Football ◽  
Potential Impact

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, European elite football (a.k.a. soccer) leagues played the remaining season 2019/20 without or strongly limited attendance of supporters (i.e., “ghost games”). From a sport psychological perspective this situation poses a unique opportunity to investigate the crowd's influence on referee decisions and the associated effect of “home advantage.” A total of 1286 matches–played in the top leagues of Spain, England, Germany, Italy, Russia, Turkey, Austria and the Czech Republic–were analyzed for results, fouls, bookings and reasons for bookings and contrasted between respective matchdays of season 2018/19 (regular attendance) and season 2019/20 (ghost games). Following recent methodological developments in the research on the home advantage effect, four different statistical analyses–including Pollard's traditional method–were used for the assessment of the home advantage effect. There are two main findings. First, home teams were booked significantly more often with yellow cards for committing fouls in ghost games. Most importantly, this effect was independent of the course of the games. In contrast, bookings for other reasons (criticism and unfair sportsmanship) changed similarly for both home and away teams in ghost games. Second, the overall home performance and home advantage effect in the respective elite leagues–identified in the respective matches of the regular 2018/19 season–vanished in the ghost games of the 2019/20 season. We conclude that the lack of supporters in top European football during the COVID-19 pandemic led to decreased social pressure from the ranks on referees, which also had a potential impact on the home advantage. Referees assessed the play of home teams more objectively, leading to increased yellow cards awarded for fouls committed by the home teams. Since there were no significant changes in referee decisions against the away teams, we argue that our observations reflect a reduction of unconscious favoritism of referees for the home teams.

scholarly journals Sport Psychological Effects of Missing Supporters in European Elite Football during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Draft version 2 17-12-2020

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Christian Leitner ◽  
Fabio Richlan
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Psychological Effects ◽  
Psychological Perspective ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Second Home ◽  
Home Advantage ◽  
Draft Version ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Positive Support

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, European top football (soccer) leagues played the final rounds of season 2019/20 without or strongly limited attendance of supporters (i.e., “ghost games”). From a sport psychological perspective this situation poses a unique opportunity to investigate the crowd’s influence on sports professionals’ behavior and performance.A total of 1286 matches - played in the top leagues of Spain, England, Germany, Italy, Russia, Turkey, Austria and the Czech Republic - were analyzed for results, points, goals, fouls, bookings and reasons for bookings and contrasted between respective matchdays of season 2018/19 (regular attendance) and season 2019/20 (“ghost games”).There are two main findings. First, the overall home advantage effect in the respective elite leagues - identified in the respective matches of the regular 2018/19 season - vanishes almost completely in the “ghost games” of the 2019/20 season. Consequently, home teams lose significantly more matches, whereas away teams win significantly more matches. Second, home teams are booked significantly more often with yellow cards for committing fouls in “ghost games” relative to regular games. Furthermore, our results provide evidence that this effect is independent on whether the home teams are leading, trailing, or drawing in score.We conclude that missing supporters in European elite football leagues dissolve the “home advantage” effect. This missing support of the “home crowd” has a significant psychological effect on the experience, behavior and performance of home teams and/or officials. The effect is evident in the awarding of yellow cards for fouls for home teams, but not for away teams. There are (at least) three possible explanations: (1) Due to missing supporters, players experience an unfamiliar reduction of arousal and drive, (2) players lack the positive support from the home crowd, resulting in increased dysfunctional aggressive behavior and/or (3) without the pressure from the ranks, referees act more objectively in their decision making.

scholarly journals How does spectator presence affect football? Home advantage remains in European top-class football matches played without spectators during the COVID-19 pandemic

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0248590
Author(s):  
Fabian Wunderlich ◽  
Matthias Weigelt ◽  
Robert Rein ◽  
Daniel Memmert
Keyword(s):  
Driving Factor ◽  
Professional Football ◽  
Home Advantage ◽  
European Football

The present paper investigates factors contributing to the home advantage, by using the exceptional opportunity to study professional football matches played in the absence of spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. More than 40,000 matches before and during the pandemic, including more than 1,000 professional matches without spectators across the main European football leagues, have been analyzed. Results support the notion of a crowd-induced referee bias as the increased sanctioning of away teams disappears in the absence of spectators with regard to fouls (p < .001), yellow cards (p < .001), and red cards (p < .05). Moreover, the match dominance of home teams decreases significantly as indicated by shots (p < .001) and shots on target (p < .01). In terms of the home advantage itself, surprisingly, only a non-significant decrease is found. While the present paper supports prior research with regard to a crowd-induced referee bias, spectators thus do not seem to be the main driving factor of the home advantage. Results from amateur football, being naturally played in absence of a crowd, provide further evidence that the home advantage is predominantly caused by factors not directly or indirectly attributable to a noteworthy number of spectators.

scholarly journals Adaptation of two years old children in Czech preschool education

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 349-356
Author(s):  
Lucie Grůzová ◽  
Zora Syslova
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Primary Education ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
Social Pressure ◽  
Kindergarten Teachers ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Pedagogical Quality ◽  
Current Topic

Abstract The article presents current topic in Czech preschool education. Czech preschool education has been dealing with placing of two years old children to kindergartens. There is economic and social pressure for receiving two years old children into kindergartens, however, contemporary pre-primary education is for children from three until six or seven years old in the Czech Republic. The network of facilities caring and education for children a up to three years of age are missing in the Czech Republic. The article presents results of qualitative research focusing on adaptation of two years old children from teachers’ perspective. The methods of questionnaire and observation were used. The research brings findings on kindergarten teachers working with two years old children in Czech kindergartens and how children develop in current conditions. Keywords: pre-primary education, pedagogical quality, two years old children, teachers´ professional competences, observation.

scholarly journals Species Diversity and Habitat Preferences of Aculeata (Insecta: Hymenoptera) of Urban and Suburban Gardens in Brno‑City (Czech Republic)

2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Říha
Keyword(s):  
Invasive Species ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Species Diversity ◽  
Threatened Species ◽  
Habitat Preferences ◽  
Red List ◽  
Statistical Analyses ◽  
Taxon Sampling ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Pan Traps

I conducted a survey of aculeate Hymenoptera in urban and suburban gardens of Brno-city in August 2015. For my survey, I selected three individual gardens, and in each of them chose three type of microhabitats: tree, grass and patch. I used yellow pan traps for taxon sampling. Using this method, I recorded 382 specimens belonging to 76 species. Subsequently, the basic indices of species diversity in individual gardens were calculated, and statistical analyses of individual gardens and various microhabitats were created. I report large differences between the Aculeata taxa found in urban and suburban gardens. Habitat preferences of species between microhabitats were discovered as well. Furthermore, I report 14 species mentioned in the Red List of threatened species of the Czech Republic (Straka 2005a,b) (hereinafter referred to as Red List); as well as one invasive species Isodontia mexicana (Saussure, 1867) and one species Pison atrum Spinola, 1808 recently reported as new for the Czech Republic (reported after the publication of the Red List itself).

scholarly journals Instrumentally documented meteorite falls: two recent cases and statistics from all falls

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (S318) ◽  
pp. 69-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavel Spurný
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Physical Properties ◽  
Statistical Analyses ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Earth’S Atmosphere ◽  
Precise Data ◽  
Instrumental Observations ◽  
Meteorite Fall ◽  
Work Up ◽  
Asteroids And Comets

AbstractPrecise data from instrumental observations of fireballs, especially those for really bright bolides, provide information about the population and physical properties of meteoroids, i.e. fragments of asteroids and comets, colliding with the Earth's atmosphere. An overview of what is known about meteoroids and their parent bodies from analysis of bolides producing meteorite falls, especially from the instrumentally observed meteorite falls, was a topic of this invited contribution. At present, atmospheric and orbital information with different degree of reliability and precision for these meteorite falls is known for only 24 cases. This topic was described in detail in the review work of Borovička, Spurný and Brown (2015) (Borovička et al., 2015). However, this work contains all instrumentally documented falls until end of 2013. To bring this work up to date, two new instrumentally observed meteorite falls in 2014, the Annama meteorite fall in Russia on 18 April 2014 and the Žďár nad Sázavou meteorite fall in the Czech Republic on 9 December 2014, are presented and commented in this paper. Especially the second case is mentioned in more detail including still unpublished data. Statistical analyses resulting from all 24 instrumentally documented falls are also mentioned.

Social variation in size at birth and preterm delivery in the Czech Republic and Sweden, 1989-91

1998 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koupilova ◽  
Vagero ◽  
Leon ◽  
Pikhart ◽  
Prikazsky ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Preterm Delivery ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Social Variation ◽  
Size At Birth

On Geropsychology in the Czech Republic

GeroPsych ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-166
Author(s):  
Hana Stepankova ◽  
Eva Jarolimova ◽  
Eva Dragomirecka ◽  
Irena Sobotkova ◽  
Lenka Sulova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Cognitive Rehabilitation ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Rehabilitation Research

This work provides an overview of psychology of aging and old age in the Czech Republic. Historical roots as well as recent activities are listed including clinical practice, cognitive rehabilitation, research, and the teaching of geropsychology.

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