(with Y.Fawaz)
In 2007, based on medical reports, FIFA ruled that no international football competition could be played in stadiums with an altitude higher than 2500 meters. We provide stark evidence which supports the claim that playing in high altitude bene.fits the home team through two channels. First, in these scenarios, high altitude teams (HAT) do better against
low altitude teams than against other high altitude teams. Second, every time that low altitude teams visit other high altitude teams they get fewer points than if they had played in a low altitude stadium. Therefore, the HAT go up in the ranking of the southamerican quali.ers for world cups, not only because of their own extra-advantage of playing in high
altitudes, but also because the LAT do worse in all high altitude stadiums. According to our work, have this ruling taken eff.ect, Ecuador would not have gone to the 2006 world cup, and therefore Ecuadors Football Federation would have