No time to read? Here are the key points of this post:
– We can find some BIG differences in football before and after COVID break
– There is a HUGE increase in away teams wins
– Away teams are receiving fewer cards

The football world came to a complete stop (not counting Belarus) in March with the coronavirus outbreak. Most leagues had an over 2 months break and big questions on how the matches would be played after the break started to surface.

We analyzed data for the first 284 matches in the Bundesliga (73 matches), La Liga (87 matches), Serie A (63 matches) and Premier League (61 matches) played AFTER the coronavirus break and how they compared with the results BEFORE the break.
Besides the big break, one of the major differences is that the matches are being played in empty arenas. This is probably affecting the teams and the referee performances.
Here is what we find out:

The home court advantage has significantly been reduced.

Before the COVID break home teams were winning an average of 44% of matches, that number has dropped to 39% after the break. The biggest difference was found on the Bundesliga while the league less affected was Italy’s Serie A.

Away teams are receiving less cards – were referees affected by the fans?

Before the break the away teams received an average of 2.44 yellow cards per match, this number has dropped to 2.02 after the break!
We believe that the empty stadiums are playing a key role here.

Those are our results by now. Let us know if you liked this analysis or what other articles like this one you would like to see.

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