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Home used to mean passion, fear, and fortress-like stadiums. But has modern football killed that edge? From tourists and VAR to sterile stadiums and £7 pints, we explore the slow death of home advantage — and what it means for the soul of the game.
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0:00
I love a home game. Nothing beats it, but I don't know about you lot, it's starting to feel a bit empty
0:06
It's void of something. Soulless, you might say. It seems like the home advantage isn't even a thing anymore
0:13
So I did some digging to find out why. Papa Pink is here with 4-4-2. Let's talk about it
0:21
There was a time when a home fixture in football meant something more than just a line on a calendar
0:27
It meant hostility, it meant fortress, it meant stepping out into a cauldron of noise
0:33
facing not just 11 players, but 40,000 growling fans who knew your full name
0:38
your family tree and your less preferred foot. It meant long coach rides into unfamiliar cities, narrow tunnel entrances
0:45
dodgy changing rooms and referees who somehow always seemed to give the 50-50s the home team's way
0:52
The pitch might be waterlogged, the lighting suspiciously dim and the ball would vanish into the crowd after every throw-in
0:59
This was the home advantage. Now, not so much. The idea that a team has a genuine, quantifiable edge when playing at home
1:07
has been gradually losing power over the last decade. And the data backs it up
1:12
Back in the early 1900s of English football, home teams won over 60% of their games
1:17
By the 1950s and 60s, that number had already started to slide
1:21
Through the 70s and 80s, home wins dropped to around 50%. Fast forward to the 21st century and the figure fell below 45%
1:30
Things got even worse during the COVID hit 2020-21 season, with home wins collapsing to 37.9%
1:38
What was once a clear edge is now barely an advantage at all
1:42
Let's start with an obvious reason for the decline, tourism. Now, this isn't a complaint, by the way
1:48
Football's global appeal is one of its greatest triumphs. Fans travelling across the globe to watch the football in the flesh
1:55
is of course a testament to how massive the game has become
1:58
But it's had a huge side effect. The traditional home crowd, once made up of fiercely loyal local voices
2:04
who lived and breathed the club, is increasingly diluted by visitors with selfie sticks and half scarves You just can generate the same kind of venom when half your stand is filming kick for their Instagram stories
2:18
The chants are often softer, the reactions are delayed, and the edge just disappears
2:25
The infamous Anfield Raw still exists, in a blockbuster game maybe, but try finding it at 3pm on a rainy Saturday against Brentford
2:34
And you can't really blame tourists either. Clubs sell the tickets. The demand is there. It's a business
2:40
But when your stadium starts feeling more like a theme park than a tribal battleground
2:45
the result is what we're seeing now. Less noise, less energy, less influence
2:50
You could argue clubs are trapped in a double bind. They need the global exposure and the financial boost that comes with international fans
2:58
But in doing so, they've hollowed out the atmosphere that made a stadium a fortress in the first place
3:03
Then there's VAR One of the often unspoken pillars of home advantage used to be the pressure
3:10
The crowd swayed referees Maybe not overly, but subtly A referee who's getting absolutely hammered by 40,000 people after not giving a penalty
3:20
Is far more likely to subconsciously balance it out later on in the match
3:24
That's just human psychology The atmosphere mattered Now the biggest decisions are made in a quiet room somewhere near Heathrow
3:32
No crowd noise, no boos, just a few people rewinding footage in silence
3:38
VAR has sanitised that part of the game. The idea that a crowd can win a penalty or pressure a red card is mostly gone
3:46
Which is great for fairness, maybe, but not so much great for home ground mystique
3:51
It's the coldest form of justice. Accurate, emotionless and indifferent to the crowd
3:56
When the home crowd loses its influence, the home team loses one of its biggest weapons
4:01
Modern stadiums aren't helping either. They're sleek, shiny and sterile. Old school grounds
4:07
were built like pressure cookers. Steep stands, fans breathing down your neck. Think Highbury
4:14
or Upton Park White Hart Lane The new generation is built for commercial viability executive boxes better sight lines Wi leg room In trying to make football more comfortable we made it less intimidating Even players talk about it
4:30
There's a reason some managers still rave about away days and hostile, tight, traditional stadiums
4:36
They know the difference. And when the away team isn't even slightly rattled
4:40
walking out the tunnel, you're already losing part of what used to be the whole point of home advantage
4:46
Travel is no longer a punishment. Let's not forget the players themselves here
4:50
Footballers are more used to travel than ever before. Teams fly in style, recover better, and prepare in minute detail
4:59
An away trip to Newcastle, for example, used to be a grind. Now it's a private jet and a perfectly timed meal plan
5:05
These players are used to playing all over the world, before they're 21. The fear factor of away grounds just isn't there anymore
5:13
If home advantage really is going extinct, maybe the question isn't just why
5:18
Maybe it's, what are we losing with it? Because this isn't just about wind percentages
5:22
or crowd decibels. It's about football's identity, the tribalism, the drama, the idea that every stadium has its own energy
5:31
its own mythology. Now, more often than not, you're stepping into a ground
5:35
that looks and feels just like your own. Same megastore out front
5:39
same pre-match playlist, same LED hoardings, advertising, betting apps and crypto exchanges
5:46
Season ticket holders talk about how going to a game doesn't feel like it used to. The tension's gone, that spark, that sense that
5:54
you were part of the story, that your voice could genuinely impact the game. When was the last time
5:59
a home crowd truly dragged a team over the line with nothing but noise and fury? You still get it
6:05
sometimes. St James' Park on a big night, Galatasaray in Europe, maybe a Milan derby, but it's very rare now
6:13
And then there's arguably the biggest problem of them all pricing. The cost of tickets
6:17
particularly in the Premier League has pushed out huge swaths of working class fan base
6:23
that once gave stadiums their grit. The standing terraces are gone the songs are quieter
6:28
the emotion is still there but it's buried under corporate hospitality half TikToks and seven pound pints You can build a fortress with tourists and day trippers You can fill a stadium sure but can you fill it with fear There also the
6:45
calendar overload to consider. With clubs playing 50, 60, sometimes even 65 games a season like we
6:51
mentioned last week, the novelty of home games wears thin. Players don't circle fixtures anymore
6:57
They rotate through them. Managers talk about managing minutes rather than building momentum
7:03
It's hard to create a mythical atmosphere when it's your sixth game in 18 days
7:09
Many of the stadiums now considered to have average atmospheres are ironically the homes of elite clubs
7:15
The Emirates is quiet when Arsenal cruising, the Etihad is mocked for being a library
7:20
Even as City break records because dominance breeds calm. calm. It takes a certain type of chaos to make a home ground truly hostile. Now, contrast that with
7:30
other clubs fighting for survival or an underdog story. Go to Bramall Lane or Villa on a CL night
7:36
The atmosphere there can be electric because every point matters, every kick matters. That's where
7:41
you still feel the weight of home turf. But in the elite tier, where squad depth is king and fixtures
7:46
come thick and fast, home advantage has become a luxury, not a weapon. And that's the uncomfortable
7:52
truth. Maybe the home crowd never mattered that much. Or maybe, just maybe, modern football has
7:58
evolved to a point where it doesn't matter anymore. Tactical nuance, video ysis
8:03
data-driven preparation, they all mitigate variables. The pitch could be in a volcano
8:08
and Pep Guardiola would still set his team up to pass through the lines. So what's the solution
8:13
if any? Maybe it's about reclaiming identity, letting stadiums have more of a say in how they
8:19
sound, feel and intimidate, encouraging standing sections, lowering prices, giving support groups
8:26
more power to shape the matchday experience. Maybe clubs need to think about atmosphere the
8:31
same way they think about set pieces, something to coach. Because if home advantage is truly
8:37
going extinct, that's not just a loss for home fans, that's a loss for football
8:42
Has home advantage gone extinct or am I just chatting rubbish? Let us know in the comments below
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