The Evaluation of the Job Satisfaction Level of the Professional Football Players in the Central Anatolia Region

Abstract

The fact that football is watched with interest all over the world and the economic power of football, which is increasing day by day thanks to the ardent fans of football, brings with it the astronomical wages of footballers. Since the early twenties, the level of satisfaction of professional football players, who have incomes that their peers cannot even imagine, have been ignored due to the money they earn, and has not been questioned much. This study was conducted to evaluate the job satisfaction levels of professional football team players in the Central Anatolia Region. The universe of the research, which was organized in accordance with the descriptive research model, consisted of approximately 384 football players in the professional football teams in the Central Anatolia Region in the 2016-17 season, while the sample of the study consisted of a total of 158 football players in the relevant universe. In the study, data were collected through the job satisfaction scale developed by Balcı (1985) and consisting of 34 items. The scale was adapted to the study group by taking expert opinions. In the statistical analysis of the data, arithmetic means, variance analysis in determining the differences, and Cronbach Alpha coefficients were used for the reliability of the data collection tool. While no significant difference was found in any sub-dimension according to the variables of "educational status, length of service in the football sector and the position played", there were significant differences according to the variables of "age, length of service in the team played and the number of matches played in a season". As a result, it has been seen that the job satisfaction of professional football players differs according to demographic variables, professional football players have the highest satisfaction from the job quality sub-dimension, and the lowest satisfaction from the development opportunities sub-dimension.