ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes a comprehensive sociological approach to further clarify the complexity of the home advantage (HA) phenomenon. More specifically, using a process sociological approach, it analyses socio-cultural aspects such as crowd effects and territoriality. Home crowd increases HA by affecting the emotional tone and altering the tension balance of the game. The effects of home crowds boost home team performance, hinder away team performance and affect referee’s bias in favour of the local team. Territoriality is connected to the perception of visiting fans and players as a threat, which leads to the creation of an atmosphere of hostility in defence of home territory. For instance, specific regions within countries of the Balkans or Nigeria, where there is an excessive threatening and aggressive behaviour towards away teams, present very high HA. Moreover, the type of sport (invasion, net/court or others) and the degree of professionalization affect territoriality: the more intense the interaction between players and the lower the degree of professionalization, the higher the territoriality effect upon HA. Finally, teams based in capital cities present less territoriality and lower HA, as do games that take place between teams playing in the same city, the so-called local derby.
