Objective calls under the spotlight: referee consistency and behaviour on football’s biggest stage

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dc.contributor.authorButler, Daviden
dc.contributor.authorButler, Roberten
dc.contributor.authorSingleton, Carlen
dc.date.accessioned2025-11-05T10:16:05Z
dc.date.available2025-11-05T10:16:05Z
dc.date.issued2025en
dc.description.abstractWe study the objectivity of officiating under extreme pressure by analysing additional time played at the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship. Controlling for within-match events, rules should be applied consistently across both halves of a match. However, we argue that second-half time allocations could be increased by greater social pressure, intensity, and stakes, as payoffs become imminent. Our analysis shows that, even after accounting for major stoppages – and despite identical rules – referees add substantially more time in the second half than the first. Moreover, referees allow more stoppage time when the scoreline is close in the second half, but only at the World Cup because tight contests were cut short there in the first halves. These discrepancies raise concerns about the effectiveness of time-wasting strategies in the sport. More broadly, our results contribute to the discussion of decision-making under pressure and implicit biases in high-stakes environments.en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionAccepted Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationButler, D., Butler, R. and Singleton, C. (2025) 'Objective calls under the spotlight: referee consistency and behaviour on football’s biggest stage', Journal of Sports Economics, 27(2), pp. 171-213. https://doi.org/10.1177/15270025251396508en
dc.identifier.doi10.1177/15270025251396508
dc.identifier.eissn1552-7794en
dc.identifier.endpage213
dc.identifier.issn1527-0025en
dc.identifier.issued2
dc.identifier.journaltitleJournal of Sports Economicsen
dc.identifier.startpage171
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/18151
dc.identifier.volume27
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherSAGE Publishingen
dc.rights© 2025, SAGE Publishing. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of the following article: Butler, D., Butler, R. and Singleton, C. (2025) 'Objective calls under the spotlight: referee consistency and behaviour on football’s biggest stage' [forthcoming], Journal of Sports Economics.en
dc.subjectDecision makingen
dc.subjectFootballen
dc.subjectRefereesen
dc.subjectJudgementen
dc.subjectBiasen
dc.subjectPressureen
dc.subjectAdditional timeen
dc.titleObjective calls under the spotlight: referee consistency and behaviour on football’s biggest stageen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
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