Yes, your team were robbed

What sports fans have known for years - that referees are inconsistent and favour home teams - has been proven by an international group with a Kiwi flavour.

Otago economics professor Stephen Dobson and researchers overseas trawled through more than 2500 English premiership football games, looking at the red and yellow cards handed out.

What the researchers found was 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.

That might not provide much belated solace for all those teams so robbed but it may yet help sports teams in the future.

Professor Dobson said that if sporting authorities wanted a better understanding of refereeing bias and inconsistency they either had to take account of the Otago research or do some of their own.

"The outcome of a game can have financial implications because the margin between success and failure for a lot of English football clubs is quite slim."

The researchers developed equations to account for many variables that could account for the variation in the number of disciplinary offences. They allowed for teams to play better when they were at home and more aggressively when away, for games such as top-of-the-table clashes to be more keenly contested and for larger crowds to exert more influence on referees.

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES