The structural analysis of physical education and sports system in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

This research is done for the purpose of identifying the structural analysis of Physical Education and Sports System in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus from the stakeholders' perspective.The decrease in the participation in school sports and success rates compared to the past, reduced productivity of physical education classes, and instability of sports management presented the necessity of analyzing physical education and sports management system to identify the issues.This research is a qualitative study due to the techniques used to resolve the obtained data. Data collecting tool of a semi-structured interview form, developed by researcher, has been used in this reseach, which includes 13 questions shaped by the feedback from 3 academics who are experts in their field, and of which, their validity has been determined. Collected data has been resolved by content analysis technique. During the preparation of the used semi-structured interview form, related literature has been screened and examined. Additionally, while forming systematic frame related to the subject, due to the lack of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus federations' archives and insufficent written resources, some information about the federations has been reached by verbal personal interviews.The research's study group, according to the purpose of qualitative study methods, is composed of 13 people, who are directors of institutions and organizations responsible for sports management and physical education activities in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, National Education Youth and Sports Minister, Foreign Minister, Sports Coordinator, Sports Department Manager, National Days Commemoration and Sports Activities Chief, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus National Olympics Committee President, 4 Federation Presidents, 2 retired physical education taechers and 1 currently working physical education teacher.Categories have been created and gathered under the related themes to present the structural analysis of physical education and sports in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus by resolving the text obtained from the interviews.While participants giving consenseus about organizing education and sports under different ministeries, people, who are experts in their field, taking role in sports organization, and creating the archives of sports federations, they also expressed their thoughts that government should not be interfering to the sports federations and clubs, but they should contribute in a supportive way. Furthermore, they also mentined that there have been embargos but failures have been hidden behind these embargos at times. Moreover, as they have indicated that sports directors of that period had been responsible for the federations to lose their memberships to International Sports Federations during their foundation years, they agreed upon the idea that embargos prevented the development of physical education and sports. But they also indicated that in spite of the issues that took place in the international field, many federations' memberships stil continue, and they mentioned the importance of some federations' attendance to international events, even though they are not members of Internationai Sports Federation.As participants think that it would be better for physical education classes to be taught by graduates of Physical Education programs, they also mentioned the importance of the support from the federations of the Republic of Turkey. Furthermore, they indicated that the presence of politics at determining the management levels of federations and clubs have created problems. The research group expressed that there is no sports policy in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the policy of the sports facilities is insufficient, and the budget that the government allocates for physical education and sports is not at the desired level. As they point out the importance of coordination between institutions, they presented their ideas that the federations and clubs should be in collaboration with schools in terms of education, local governments should make legal regulations to contribute more to physical education and sports, and in addition to this, tourism and sports associations should be in collaboration in order to develop sports tourism in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.