Altitude and unfair home field advantage

Certain countries and clubs have a very strong, perhaps unfair, home field advantage. Bolivia plays many of its games in La Paz. As La Paz is about4000 m above sealevel Altitude sickness is frequent unwanted companion, it can stike anyone however fit, especialy if you fly directly . Symtoms are headache, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, lightheadeness, confusion arre some of the symptoms. Bolivians from la Paz do much better when they play there, but often lose elsewhere. The same is true of Ecuador, but Ecuador does slightly better than Bolívia in the away games. Bogotá and Mexico City also pose problems, however minor. Teams classified with this advantage do not do well in the World Cup and other "away" games.

RESULTS – BOLÍVIA QUALIFYING MATCHES FOR THE 2006 WORLD CUP BY HOME AND AWAY
	WINS	TIES	LOSSES
HOME	4	2	3
AWAY	0	0	9

The differences in wins and losses reflects the differences in goals: at home, Bolívia scored almost twice as many goals as away, and opponents scored one third of the goals that they scored away, in their own "home games". This extreme home advantage works against a better representation of South America in global competitions. In 1930, Bolivia lost 4-0 to Yugoslavia; in 1978 there were play-offs qualifying between Bolivia and Hungary: in La Paz, Bolivia lost by a tight score, 3-2, but in Budapest, there was a disastrous 6-0 defeat. What is the point of preventing a more competitive South American team from competing through extreme home field advantage if teams that benefit from high altitude games do not fare well at sea level?

RESULTS – BOLÍVIA GOALS PRO AND CON QUALIFYING MATCHES FOR THE 2006 WORLD CUP BY HOME AND AWAY
	HOME GAMES	AWAY GAMES
GOALS PRO	13	7
GOALS AGAINST	9	27

Although Bolívia is an extreme example because of altitude (as is Ecuador), one should not expect similar differences between home and away games of all countries.
Ecuador did not lose a single match at home - won seven and tied two. Scored 17 goals and let five in; but in away games, it only won one, tied two and lost six. Scored six goals (approximately one third of the home games) and let 14 in, approximately three times as many as at home.