Abstract:
Soccer teams seem to win most of their matches when they compete at home compared with when they compete away from home. This is partly attributable to the home-advantage decisions referees‟ award to the home teams. This study used qualitative methods to explore the views of referees who officiated soccer matches at the 23rd GUSA games held at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, on the phenomenon. Also, theoretical concepts were exploited from knowledge-based repositories on home-advantage decisions. Seven experienced referees were selected to supply information through an adapted semi-structured interview protocol. Content analysis procedures identified nine inter-related factors that define three higher-order themes. The factors; experience, opinion and control form a higher-order theme labelled personal factors. Crowd aggression, team reception, play conditions, and player reaction were identified as situational factors, and geographical location and travel conditions represented environmental themes. All the nine factors inter-relate to influence the decision-making efficiency of referees when officiating soccer matches. It was recommended that referees pay particular attention to the home-advantage themes and models expatiated in this study to become aware of varied factors that underlie the award of home-advantage decisions. This will enable referees device appropriate strategies to cope with the factors. Also, the activities of referees should be monitored via the use of electronic monitoring systems such as video technology at all league centres to force referees rescind arbitrary decisions they make on the field of play. This is likely to lead to a reduction in biased officiating.
