The influence of Emotional Feelings on Refereeing Decisions in Football

Abstract

Football referees in Burkina Faso experience strong emotions when making refereeing decisions. The aim was to analyse the influence of emotions on decision-making during matches. This was a two-phase mixed survey of referees. The first was a questionnaire survey: “Sport Emotion Questionnaire SEQ” by Jones et al, (2005) involving 79 referees. The second was a self-confrontation interview with the central referee of the last match. The data was analysed using the authors’ model and SPSS Version 21. The verbatim analysis confirmed the five dimensions of emotion identified in the literature. Happiness and excitement appeared to be statistically associated with the level of refereeing, competition and seniority. The preponderant role of emotions in the refereeing decision-making process in football was highlighted. A central and complex theme, it would be wise to consider psycho-physiological studies of referees in order to determine the mechanisms by which discrete emotions are expressed.