<b> Home advantage in the soccer: comparison between the Brazilian championship and the main national leagues of the World </b>

Home advantage is a phenomenon that has been investigated in many sporting competition. Nevertheless, data from Brazilian soccer and comparisons between different leagues are rare in the literature. Thus, the objective of this study was to perform a survey of the advantage of playing at home in the first division of the Brazilian Championship (Série A), by means of percentage of available points won while playing at home, and to compare this with the principal national leagues of the world for the seasons from 2002/03 to 2006/07. The results showed that there was a significantly greater advantage to playing at home for teams in the Brazilian Championship (64.9 ± 2.2%; p Resumo ResumoA vantagem em casa é um fenômeno que tem sido investigado em muitos confrontos esportivos. Contudo, dados do futebol brasileiro e comparações entre ligas são limitados na literatura. Dessa forma, o objetivo deste estudo foi fazer um levantamento da vantagem em casa do Campeonato Brasileiro da primeira divisão (Série A), por meio do percentual de aproveitamento dos pontos em casa, e compará-la com as principais ligas nacionais do mundo nas temporadas de 2002/03 a 2006/07. Os resultados demonstraram que o Campeonato Brasileiro obteve vantagem em casa significantemente maior (64,9 ± 2,2%; p