The relationship between the principle of impartiality and job description in football interpreting

Football interpreting is a relatively untouched subject in the Turkish literature with a limited number of postgraduate studies. Considering the diversity of the fields of interpreting, sports and football interpreting are not among the prominent subjects. The expectation of this thesis is to contribute to the literature on football interpreting and to emphasize the importance of the profession. It is hoped that the value given to the profession will increase. The thesis has developed from the idea that the impartiality of translations may be questionable when the liveliness, variability and stress level of the environments in which football interpreters work and the differing ideologies of the people, communities and even the interpreters are taken into consideration. In this context, a questionnaire consisting of 6 open-ended questions was sent to 21 football interpreters working in Trendyol Super League and Trendyol 1st League in the 2024-2025 season and the data obtained were analyzed through content analysis. Job descriptions of football interpreters were explained in line with the responses received. It is inferred and argued that it is necessary to clarify the job description in terms of the applicability of the principle of impartiality. The results obtained from the questionnaire responses show that there are many factors affecting the translation decisions of football interpreters. These factors include the styles, moods and characters of the people whose messages are being conveyed, environmental conditions, ideologies, commitment, loyalty, the educational background of the interpreter, the availability of translation and interpreting field knowledge, the way of starting to work at the club, and the perspective of the profession. Although it is accepted that the interpreting decisions in football may differ according to the interpreter and time due to the variables mentioned and that the interpreter is responsible for the decisions made by evaluating the contexts and the people in the environment, it was investigated whether there are expectations on the interpreters to be biased that affect the making of these decisions. It was concluded that the expectations from interpreters vary according to the characteristics of the clubs and employers and are not standardised.