Referee! There's foul play afoot, says scientist

A soccer-mad British scientist claimed on Wednesday to have unravelled the mystery of the home advantage -- referees can't take the pressure of a baying home crowd.

Various theories, from the discomfort of away travel and the lack of local pitch knowledge, have been put forward as reasons for sides in England's Premier League being statistically almost twice as likely to win on their home turf.

But Alan Nevill, from the University of Wolverhampton in central England, now believes the biggest factor could be a lack of impartiality by the man in black.

Nevill and his team showed video footage of 47 tackles to a squad of 40 qualified referees and asked them to judge whether they were fouls or not.

The refs were split into two groups: one could hear the crowd reactions while the other watched silent footage. Neither group saw the original referee's decision.

Those watching with the sound turned up were more reluctant to penalise the home team, adjudging 15 percent fewer of the tackles by home players as fouls when compared to their counterparts without the sound, New Scientist magazine reported.

The decisions made by the first group of referees were also more in line with those made by the original match official.

Nevill, a fan of last weekend's FA Cup winners Arsenal, is convinced the results show referee bias is the main explanation for home advantage.

"To get the crowd off their back they wave play on," he said.