How coaches influence referee decisions

The work elaborates on the question if coaches in non-professional soccer can influence referee decisions. Modeled from a principal-agent perspective, the managing referee boards can be seen as the principal. They aim at facilitating a fair competition which is in accordance with the existing rules and regulations. In doing so, the referees are assigned as impartial agents on the pitch. The coaches take over a non-legitimate principal-like role trying to influence the referees even though they do not have the formal right to do so. Separate questionnaires were set up for referees and coaches. The coach questionnaire aimed at identifying the extent and the forms of influencing attempts by coaches. The referee questionnaire tried to elaborate on the questions if referees take notice of possible influencing attempts and how they react accordingly. The results were put into relation with official match data in order to identify significant influences on personal sanctions (yellow cards, second yellow cards, red cards) and the match result. It is found that there is a slight effect on the referee’s decisions. However, this effect is rather disadvantageous for the influencing coach and there is no evidence for an impact on the match result itself.

Level thesis:degree_level

thesis.doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher

Universität Potsdam

Year

2015

Author dc:creator

• Negri, Michael

Contributors dc:contributor

• Brand, Ralf

• referees
• decision making
• soccer
• bias
• Schiedsrichter
• Trainer
• Entscheidungen
• Urteilsverzerrung
• Prinzipal-Agent

Statement dc:rights

• CC-BY-NC-SA - Namensnennung, nicht kommerziell, Weitergabe zu gleichen Bedingungen 4.0 International

Repository record source_url

https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/7224

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kobv.de-opus4-uni-potsdam:7224