Are football referees really biased and inconsistent? Evidence on the incidence of disciplinary sanction in the English Premier League

Dawson, P, Dobson, S, Goddard, J.A. and Wilson, J, 2007. Are football referees really biased and inconsistent? Evidence on the incidence of disciplinary sanction in the English Premier League. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society), 170 (1), pp. 231-250. ISSN 0964-1998

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Abstract

The paper presents a statistical analysis of patterns in the incidence of disciplinary sanction (yellow and red cards) that were taken against players in the English Premier League over the period 1996–2003. Several questions concerning sources of inconsistency and bias in refereeing standards are examined. Evidence is found to support a time consistency hypothesis, that the average incidence of disciplinary sanction is predominantly stable over time. However, a refereeing consistency hypothesis, that the incidence of disciplinary sanction does not vary between referees, is rejected. The tendency for away teams to incur more disciplinary points than home teams cannot be attributed to the home advantage effect on match results and appears to be due to a refereeing bias favouring the home team.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society)
Creators:	Dawson, P., Dobson, S., Goddard, J.A. and Wilson, J.
Publisher:	The Royal Statistical Society (Blackwell Publishing)
Date:	2007
Volume:	170
Number:	1
ISSN:	0964-1998
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1111/j.1467-985X.2006.00451.x DOI
Rights:	© The Royal Statistical Society and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	EPrints Services
Date Added:	09 Oct 2015 09:57
Last Modified:	23 Aug 2016 09:07
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/5383

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