It’s statistically proven that playing at home gives the players a huge advantage.
But do you know the reason?
Well to be fair, no one does. But there sure are some very interesting theories.
Statistics (Home : Away)
Those statistics are the results of a study analyzing the English Premier League in the years between 1992 and 2005
Goal average: 1.5 — 1.1
Yellow cards: 1.1 — 1.6
Red Cards: 0.06 — 0.09
Penalties converted: 0.1 — 0.05
Blame The Poor Referee
Statistically, referees are more likely to favor the home team even after eliminating the effects of the crowd by awarding fouls, cards, and penalty kicks.
Adding the jeering of the fans when every player happens to trip over his own laces and you can see how biased a referee can be.
Another study indicates that stronger teams tend to be favored by referees. Also many referees don’t believe in the saying "innocent until proven guilty", and are heavily swayed by players and team's reputations.
This can somewhat explain why teams at the top of the league get many dodgy calls in their favor, while smaller and more physical teams can get bullied by some referees.
Because those big teams perform well, referees subconsciously assume that player X who plays for this magnificent club is too talented to try and dive to get a point from humble team Y (unless he’s Ronaldo).
Good Old Steroids
The natural steroids, not the illegal ones.
Studies showed that the levels of testosterone in the players' bodies increase by 50% when playing at home and this percentage is even higher when they play against arch-rivals.
Testosterone is one of the most popular doping agents among athletes and any increase in its levels in circulations greatly affects both the physical and mental performances of the players.
This increase is possibly because of the primal instinct in males to "defend their territories", which in this case are their home stadiums.
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