One research among the professional and amateur soccer players over fair play consept

The purpose of this study is to examine the importance of the "fair play" concept among the professional and amateur soccer players. Total of 222 soccer players have been surveyed to collect the data for this study. The sample group consist of 100 professional and 122 amateur soccer players from 4 professional and 6 amateur soccer organizations. The first section of the survey includes questions to collect personal information about the players. The second section includes a set of statements to determine their tendencies towards "fair play". The last section consists of several different scenarios to evaluate players' opinions under critical situations. This section also includes questions whether they would act the same way if they were exposed to the same situations. The data has been analysed by using a statistical analysis sofware, "SPSS 11.0". the frequency and percentile distributious have been evaluated to determine if there is a relationship between the professional and amateur players in understanding of "fair play". The Ki-Square (x2) method has been used in the analysis (p=0.05). The analysis of the survey illustrates that professional players behaves harsher than amateur players under critical situations. Also, even if they are amateur players, the more successful players have the tendency to behave harsher under such situations. When the benefit of the team is a great priority, the importance of fair play looses its value among professional players. The professional players and amateur players have similar opinions about cheating during a game. They both approve cheating under critical situations. When it is compared to the professionals, the amateur players have a better understanding of fair play. The professional players have much less tendency in obeying the fair play rules. The difference in understanding the fair play rules becomes more83- obvious in their evaluation of the critical scenarios in the last section of the survey. Professionalism, combined with the urge to be successful, tends to destroy the fair play concept. Professional soccer players do not obey the informal fair play rules as much as amateur soccer players. Even if it conflicts with sports ethics, the priority is to win the game. Under this point of view, the players treats their opponent as their enemies. Players believe that it is natural to use the unfair advantages to win a game. On the other hand, even though it is proportionally less, amateur players also overrule the informal fair play rules when it comes to winning the game. In today's soccer, informal fair play is just a neutral concept. Professional soccer players do not obey the fair play rules if they believe that they will not be caught by the referee. They play the game under the authority of the referee. This leaves us with just a mechanical sports ethics. The amateur players obey the formal fair play rules in higher proportions than professionals. The Professional players have a higher tendency to cheat and mislead the referee. Soccer is exposed to such behavior very frequently. Evidently the urge to be successful is the priority for the players. This results in decrasing importance of the fair play concept.