Catch Me If You Can

Abstract

The central hypothesis of this study is that relationships develop systematically between referees and teams and affect referees’ decisions. Referees’ travel distance to respective stadiums and count of matches refereed for respective teams are used to measure long-term relationships. We find some evidence that the count of referee–team interactions affects disciplinary cautions in lower divisions of the English Football League. This is less evident in higher divisions where, however, distances between referees’ hometowns and stadiums appear to play a role. The influence of distance further increases with the extent of referees’ experience with the respective teams.

Keywords

English football soccer Premier League yellow cards referee bias home advantage favoritism regulatory capture

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Barclays Premier League. (2014). When are referees selected? Retrieved from http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/fans/faqs/when-are-referees-selected.html

Bell

A. R.

Brooks

Matthews

Sutcliffe

(2012). Over the moon or sick as a parrot? The effects of football results on a club’s shareprice. Applied Economics, 44, 3435–3452.

Boyko

R. H.

Boyko

A. R.

Boyko

M. G.

(2007). Referee bias contributes to home advantage in English Premiership football. Journal of Sports Sciences, 25, 1185–1194.

Buraimo

Forrest

Simmons

(2010). The 12th man?: Refereeing bias in English and German soccer. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 173, 431–449.

Buraimo

Simmons

Maciaszczyk

(2012). Favoritism and referee bias in European soccer: Evidence from the Spanish league and the UEFA Champions League. Contemporary Economic Policy, 30, 329–343.

Courneya

K. S.

Carron

A. V.

(1992). The home advantage in sport competitions: A literature review. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 14, 13–27.

Dawson

Dobson

(2010). The influence of social pressure and nationality on individual decisions: Evidence from the behaviour of referees. Journal of Economic Psychology, 31, 181–191.

Dawson

Dobson

Goddard

Wilson

(2007). Are football referees really biased and inconsistent?: Evidence on the incidence of disciplinary sanction in the English Premier League. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 170, 231–250.

Dohmen

T. J.

(2008). The influence of social forces: Evidence from the behavior of football referees. Economic Inquiry, 46, 411–424.

10.

Fédération Internationale de Football Association. (2013). Laws of the Game, 2013/2014. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved October 8, 2013, from http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/footballdevelopment/technicalsupport/refereeing/laws-of-the-game/index.html

11.

The Football Association. (2013a). Manual of guidance 2013–2014. Retrieved from http://www.thefa.com/˜/media/files/pdf/the-fa-2013-14/referees/manual-of-guidance-2013-14.ashx

12.

The Football Association. (2013b). The FA handbook—Season 2013-2014. Retrieved from http://www.thefa.com/˜/media/Files/TheFAPortal/governance-docs/rules-of-the-association/2013-14/fa-handbook-2013-14.ashx

13.

Gallo

Grund

Reade

J. J.

(2013). Punishing the foreigner: Implicit discrimination in the Premier League based on oppositional identity. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 75, 136–156.

14.

Garicano

Palacios

Prendergast

(2001). Favoritism under social pressure. (NBER Working Paper 8376). Cambridge, MA: Natural Bureau of Economic Research.

15.

Johnston

(2008). On referee bias, crowd size, and home advantage in the English soccer Premiership. Journal of Sports Sciences, 26, 563–568.

16.

Neave

Wolfson

(2003). Testosterone, territoriality, and the ‘home advantage.’ Physiology & Behavior, 78, 269–275.

17.

Nevill

A. M.

Holder

R. L.

(1999). Home advantage in sport. Sports Medicine, 28, 221–236.

18.

Nevill

A. M.

Balmer

N. J.

Williams

A. M.

(2002). The influence of crowd noise and experience upon refereeing decisions in football. Psychology of Sport & Exercise, 3, 261–272.

19.

Page

(2010). Alone against the crowd: Individual differences in referees’ ability to cope under pressure. Journal of Economic Psychology, 31, 192–199.

20.

Plessner

Betsch

(2001). Sequential effects in important referee decisions: The case of penalties in soccer. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 23, 254–259.

21.

Pollard

(2006). Worldwide regional variations in home advantage in association football. Journal of Sports Sciences, 24, 231–240.

22.

Pollard

(2005). Long-term trends in home advantage in professional team sports in North America and England (1876 – 2003). Journal of Sports Sciences, 23, 337–350.

23.

Reilly

Witt

(2011). Disciplinary sanctions in English Premiership football: Is there a racial dimension? Labour Economics, 18, 360–370.

24.

Schwarz

(2011). Compensating tendencies in penalty kick decisions of referees in professional football: Evidence from the German Bundesliga 1964-2006. Journal of Sports Science, 29, 441–447.

25.

Scoppa

(2008). Are subjective evaluations biased by social factors or connections? An econometric analysis of soccer referee decisions. Empirical Economics, 35, 123–140.

26.

Sutter

Kocher

M. G.

(2004). Favoritism of agents - The case of referees’ home bias. Journal of Economic Psychology, 25, 461–469.

27.

Witt

(2005). Do players react to sanction changes? Evidence from the English Premier League. Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 52, 623–640.