Current Issues in Sport Science 1 (2016) Psychological issues in football officiating: An interview study with top-level referees Urs Schnyder1, * & Ernst-Joachim Hossner1 1 Institute of Sport Science, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland * Corresponding author: Institute of Sport Science, University of Bern, Bremgartenstrasse 145, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland, Tel: +41 31 6315167, Fax: +41 31 6315169 Email:
[email protected] ORIGINAL ARTICLE ABSTRACT Article History: The present study aims on the identification of problems in the practice of top-level football referee- Received 15th March 2016 ing. For this purpose, semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data from 23 European Accepted 09th August 2016 elite referees. Through inductive content analysis, seven higher-order themes emerged: (1) descrip- Published 27th September 2016 tive, (2) characteristics of a good elite referee, (3) difficulties in decision-making, (4) pre-match prepa- ration, (5) communication through headset, (6) decision-making, and (7) decision-making training. Handling Editors: On the one hand, the findings underline the practical relevance of existing scientific research; on the Günter Amesberger, other hand, the relevance of some areas of research, for instance, on the role of biases, is questioned University of Salzburg, Austria by the interviewees’ statements. A particular need for further research could be revealed regarding Sabine Würth, the development, optimisation, or evaluation of (1) the pre-match preparation, (2) supporting tech- University of Salzburg, Austria nical devices, (3) innovative training tools for decision-making, (4) the within-team communication, and (5) complementary methods such as mental practice. Editor-in-Chief: Martin Kopp Keywords: University of Innsbruck, Austria association football – expert performance – psychological characteristics – refereeing - team communication – visual perception Reviewers: Markus Raab DSHS Köln, Germany Reviewer 2: anonymous | downloaded: 27.10.2019 Citation: Schnyder, U., & Hossner, E.-J.