Psychological Factors in Protests by University Football Players Against Referees

Abstract

In football, players express their objections to referees’ decisions in the form of “protests” when they are not convinced that the referee’s judgment is correct. Previous studies have shown that protests have several disadvantages. Furthermore, since switching between offense and defense is important in football, moving quickly to the next play without protesting is important. Therefore, this study sought to identify factors associated with protests by football players. Specifically, interviews were conducted with university football players regarding the reasons that they would or would not protest against referees during football matches. Based on the interview results, items were created to measure protests against referees in football games and to measure factors expected to be related to such protests, and a questionnaire survey was conducted using these items. The results showed that players who felt that protests were costly, felt that they could cope well with unsatisfactory judgments made by referees, or who respected referees did not protest very often in various situations in football games.