Refereeing behavior and its relationship to the psychological effects of players in the Iraqi Professional Football League

Abstract

The sporting development achieved in various sporting activities is nothing but the result of various research, studies, and scientific efforts that have contributed to the widespread advancement of the sports movement at all levels. Sports are a complex social and cultural system. Football is one of the most popular and developed sports in the world, and many officials and coaches make great efforts to advance teams to advanced positions in tournaments. Here, the importance of the research is highlighted by developing a tool to measure the refereeing behavior of referees in the Iraqi Professional Football League, which can be used in the game of football. Developing a tool to measure the psychological effects suffered by players in the Iraqi Professional Football League is the first in this field, to the researchers' knowledge. The research problem: The researchers noticed, through their practice and follow-up, and as one of them is a former football referee, that referees' behavior can negatively and significantly affect many of the psychological characteristics of players. The decisions and behaviors of referees and the actions of fans during matches have profound psychological repercussions on the player as a result of his feeling of injustice from these decisions and behaviors, regardless of whether they are correct or incorrect. This certainly has serious psychological effects on players. The most important objectives are to identify On the relationship between refereeing behavior and the psychological effects of players in the Iraqi Professional Football League. The nature of the problem determines the methodology used. Therefore, the researcher used the descriptive approach using a survey method (the current situation). Accordingly, the research sample was randomly selected, representing players from the Iraqi Professional Football League clubs for the 2023-2024 season, numbering (20) players for the exploratory experiment from the original community, and (100) players for the main experimental sample. The most important conclusions are that increasing refereeing behavior indirectly leads to a reduction in the psychological effects of players in the Iraqi Professional Football League. The most important recommendations are the need for the Football Association and the Referees Committee to focus on developing refereeing behavior among referees assigned to manage Professional League matches.