Coaches’ Experiences of Morality in English Professional Football Environments: Recommendations for Creating a Moral Atmosphere

Abstract

Coaches are key socializing agents who influence the sociomoral context. A function of socialization in coaching is the imparting of values and ideology, which guide behavior. English professional football is known for authoritarian and subservient cultures whereby coaches will enforce cultural norms and values, which consequently shape their players’ moral development. Therefore, from a contextual viewpoint, professional football serves as a suitable site for exploring coaches’ views of morality. This study consisted of two aims: (a) explore English professional football coaches’ experiences of morality in football and (b) share coaches’ accounts of how they create and manage a moral atmosphere. Semistructured interviews were conducted with eight male professional English football coaches. Thematic analysis resulted in two general dimensions: coaches’ experiences of morality and recommendations for creating and managing a moral atmosphere. Coaches shared accounts of the moral conflicts and antisocial behaviors they experienced. The findings suggest that coaches struggle to define morality while highlighting the lack of coach education on the topic. Furthermore, similarities were observed in relation to coaches’ recommendations for creating and managing a moral atmosphere. Therefore, the study concludes by providing a selection of guiding principles that professional football coaches could implement when creating and managing a moral atmosphere.

Stress and Coping Experiences of U.K. Professional Football Managers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Pre-COVID, crowd noise has been found to influence the execution of skills and decision-making of referees (Scoppa, 2021). Football coaches have also openly shared accounts of "cheating", "verbal aggression", "fighting" and "influencing the referee" (Higham et al, 2021). Coaches' aggressive side-line behaviors are often 'normalized' and justified due to the highly competitive environment of football and 'need to win' (Higham et al, 2021).…”

“…Football coaches have also openly shared accounts of "cheating", "verbal aggression", "fighting" and "influencing the referee" (Higham et al, 2021). Coaches' aggressive side-line behaviors are often 'normalized' and justified due to the highly competitive environment of football and 'need to win' (Higham et al, 2021). Yet, when drawing comparison of coaches' experiences in COVID-19 throughout other sporting contexts, there was recognition of the challenging and unprecedented environment that promoted a need to review, adjust, focus or re-engage with different goals (Costa et al, 2022).…”

“…Subsequently, facilitating adaptive conduct and morality within professional football coaches continues to be an area of perceived need. To date, coaches' have discussed that the current protocol to facilitate 'sporting conduct' and moral behavior is ineffective (e.g., individual reflective tasks on coaching badges) (Higham et al, 2021). As such, league associations could consider group reflective discussions about common moral issues coaches experience to improving side-line behaviors (e.g., the perception that you will obtain favorable officiating outcomes by engaging in aggressive side-line behaviors; Higham et al, 2021).…”

“…Group discussions may assist coaches' to be more reflective and honest with their side-line behaviours by sharing experiences (Higham et al, 2021). Following the insights of our coaches interviewed, educational sessions could also be provided to coaches' regarding the negative implications of aggressive side-line behaviours (e.g., distraction from tactical component of the game) and how adapting their behaviour has potential to enhance their coaching performance.…”

“…Specifically, video calls allow for the participant to conduct the interview in a space of their own choosing which can increase the comfort in speaking about personal experiences during challenging circumstances, such as COVID-19 (Gray et al, 2020). Such methodologies are particularly advantageous when looking to explore the experiences of professional football coaches who are a hard to access sample (Higham et al, 2021). As such, coaches' who were unable to participate in video-call interviews completed telephone interviews.…”