Scientists prove refs are biased to the home side

ACADEMICS have proved what football managers, players and fans have been saying for years - referees are woefully inconsistent and favour home teams.

Researchers analysed more than 2500 English Premiership matches and discovered that referees were statistically more likely to award yellow and red cards against the away team.

Even when home advantage, game importance and crowd size were taken into account, the men in the middle still came down harder on the away side.

The Bath University study also backed up one of the commonest gripes of bosses and fans - the blatant inconsistency of referees.

They found some referees were "significantly" more likely to discipline players than others, while "underdogs" were more likely to be punished than the Premiership's top sides.

"Managers have been right to highlight inconsistencies and controversial decisions in games, but without a proper analysis of refereeing decisions over a period of time, their comments look like the usual post-match gripe, especially if they are on the losing side," said Dr Peter Dawson, a Wigan fan and lecturer in economics at the University of Bath.

"The evidence provides a firm factual foundation that will help football's authorities debate what positive action they might take to ensure fair refereeing of matches in the future.

"This could include encouraging referees to avoid what is presumably unintentional home-team bias in their decision-making, and examining the extent to which corrective action is allowed to vary between officials."

Researchers from the universities of Bath, Otago (New Zealand), St Andrews and Bangor analysed all 2660 matches during the Premiership seasons from 1996/97 to 2002/3 for the number of yellow and red cards handed out.

They then developed equations to account for the many different variables which could account for the variation in the number of disciplinary offences.

As well as finding a distinct home bias in refereeing, disciplinary action and inconsistency between referees, the research also highlighted that: Underdogs tend to incur a higher rate of disciplinary sanction than favourites; the number of disciplinary offences tends to be higher in matches between evenly-balanced teams, home teams appear to play more aggressively in front of larger crowds and the crowd size did not influence the incidence of disciplinary sanction against away team.