Tyler Williams dan Christopher Walter (2011) telah menjalankan kajian tentang “kesan ketinggian

terhadap keputusan perlawanan bola sepak”. Pasukan bola sepak sering bertanding di kawasan
ketinggian melebihi 2,000 meter (6,562 kaki) semasa kelayakan Piala Dunia. Media, peminat dan
pemain sering mempersoalkan keadilan bermain di kawasan yang tinggi, dan FIFA telah melarang
pertandingan antarabangsa diadakan di kawasan yang melebihi 2,500 meter (8,200 kaki) pada tahun
2007. Para penyelidik bersetuju bahawa perjalanan ke tempat pertandingan yang ketinggiannya
yang lebih tinggi atau lebih rendah boleh menjejaskan prestasi para pemain. Namun, bagi pemain
professional, masalah ini mungkin tidak menjejaskan prestasinya yang boleh mempengaruhi
keputusan perlawanan. Di samping itu, banyak pasukan cuba untuk mencegah kesan ketinggian
dengan membenarkan pemain meluangkan masa untuk menyesuaikan diri di tempat pertandingan
terutamanya di stadium sebelum perlawanan berlangsung. Bagi mengenal pasti kesan perubahan
ketinggian, pengkaji telah membandingkan keputusan perlawanan peringkat antarabangsa bagi
benua Amerika Selatan dengan mengkaji perlawanan pasukan yang sama tetapi bermain di
ketinggian yang berbeza di dalam negara yang sama. Pendekatan ini untuk mengawal kecekapan
seperti jarak perjalanan yang diambil oleh negara-negara terlibat ke tempat pertandingan. Pengkaji
mendapati bahawa pasukan lawan bermain teruk di Ecuador apabila mereka perlu menempuh
perjalanan ke kawasan tinggi ke Quito (2,800 meter), tetapi mereka menunjukkan corak permainan
yang lebih baik apabila mereka menempuhi perjalanan yang tidak tinggi ke Bogot´a (2,550 meter)
untuk bermain di Colombia. Kesimpulannya, perjalanan ke tempat yang lebih rendah tidak
menjejaskan prestasi pemain tetapi perjalanan ke tempat yang lebih tinggi memberi kesan negatif
kepada pemain yang boleh menjejaskan keputusan perlawanan.
We find that traveling down has no impact on match outcomes, but traveling up has a negative,
linear effect on away team performance on average. We explore these results further by comparing
matches between the same teams played at low and high altitude in Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador,
country by country. FIFA’s initial upper altitude limit was just below Colombia and Ecuador’s main
stadium altitudes, so these comparisons are policy relevant. Teams play worse in Ecuador when they
must travel up to Quito (2,800 meters), but they actually play better when traveling up to Bogot´a
(2,550 meters) to play Colombia. Visiting teams’ effectiveness at altitude against Colombia suggests
that FIFA does not need to cap altitude in the 2,500 to 3,000 meter range. Teams struggle mightily
when traveling up to 3,600 meters in La Paz, Bolivia (rather than playing at 400 meters in Santa
Cruz), but we refrain from making policy recommendations at this altitude level since our analysis
relies on a single country.

Using a two-sided linear regression model on over 100 years of match data, we find that home
teams have a distinct advantage in South American international soccer when away teams travel up
for a match. In contrast with previous work with similar data (Gore et al., 2008), we control for away
team quality and find that traveling down has no impact on match outcomes. Countryspecific
analysis shows that away teams have had success playing Colombia at an altitude of 2,550 meters,
even when controlling for team quality. However, Ecuador’s winning percentage increases by 25 to
30 percentage points when they play just 250 meters farther up in Quito. The altitude advantage is
even larger at 3,600 meters in Bolivia (45 percentage points). Future work should consider whether
the 250 meters between Colombia and Ecuador or other aspects of home field advantage can
explain these differences. We rule out strategic scheduling as an explanation by controlling for yearly
low-altitude winning percentage. Away teams’ success at over 2,500 meters in Colombia should give
FIFA pause when considering an altitude restriction under 3,000 meters. Although Bolivia appears to
have a strong advantage at 3,600 meters, we advise looking at these results in detail and collecting
more data before using them to justify a limit over 3,000 meters. Our statistical findings do not take
ethical arguments into consideration, either. High altitude is part of many countries’ culture, and
other environmental factors remain largely unregulated (e.g., temperature, humidity, and air
quality). Altitude does seem to generate an advantage, but any restriction must take all of these
factors into account.