Football, known as soccer in some parts of the world, is one of the most popular team sports, played by circa 300 million people all over the world. It also has the highest global television audience in sports.  In football,  there  is no direct relationship between the number of goals scored and the points earned along a match, in the end, it is just necessary to score one goal more than the opposing team to win a  match (earning  3  points)  or  to score the same number of goals for a draw (earning 1 point each). However, in most cases, scoring many goals make possible secures the win, and therefore, this is a major aim for each team. Of course, the opposing team that pauses its own objectives, will try to neutralize these efforts at the same time. This competition, this struggle, is the beauty of the game (Villa and Lozano, 2016). People, due to the pressure of the developing world, are confronted with a lot of emotions daily; in different situations such as fear, joy, sorrow, etc. One of them is anger (Baygöl, 1997). Anger is a natural emotion for human (Ustun et al., 1995). Anger which is important for human life, usually reveals the problems in the family, work, and health. Anger is a negative sense that is related to perception that shows variability in terms of severity and continuity, exposure to a sensual rise and a faulty behavior (Yavuzer, 1992).

Aggression is a multiply determined behavior deliberately chosen for the sake of destroying or damaging other persons or things and influenced by a range of biological, psychosocial, and contextual factors (Donnelly and Ward, 2015). Aggressive behaviors among athletes have increased especially in recent years, and this increase has affected schools that are a part of the community (Malhiwt al., 2014). Human aggression as any form of behaviour directed toward the goal of harming or injuring another living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment. The use of this definition in sport is problematic because behaviours that are integral to competitive success would be described as harmful or injurious (e.g. rendering an opponent unconscious in boxing) (Baron and Richardson,1994). Using derisive words to others; insulting a person directly or indirectly, and expressing anger both with spoken words and body language (Köknel, 1986). In order to overcome anger, it is essential to determine not to suppress or hide it.  It creates a lifelong loyalty with a major sense of dependency and belonging due to its competitive nature, and surprising outcome. For these reasons, football has become a passion for people through the ages as a sport branch that represents our impulses (Cengiz, 2014). The aim of this study is to show the importance of football in Turkey due to the deep interest of millions of people in it and its ability to unite different kinds of people. Violent and aggressive behavior in football is examined in this study as these characters are displayed both in and outside the pitch. The result of the study will be revealed and recommendations will be made. 

Personal features of research group

Data related to demographic features of football players and their interpretations are given. In Table 1, It is seen after examining participants’ education status that 62% of them graduated from high school and 38% of them graduated from University. 10.4% of the participants has lived in the metropolis, 60.4% of them in the city, 22.7%  in the town and  6.5% of them in the village. They also stated that while 11.1% of their fathers are officers, 22.7% of them are workers, 11.7% of their fathers are trademen, 31.8% are retired men and  22.7% are self-employed. While 20.8%  of their mothers are working, 79.2% are not working. 10.4% of the participants’ sports beginning age is between 5 and 7, 41%  are between 8 and 10, 34% are between 11 and 13 and 14.2%  are between 14 to 16 years. For the years of the playing footbal, 18.8% are between 4 to 6 years, 26.6%  are between 7 to 9 years, 22.7% are between 10 to 12 years, 12.4%  between 13 to 15 years and 19.5%  are 16 years and above. On the number of teams played on,  21.4%  played on between 1 to 2 teams, 22.7% between 3 to 4 teams, 25.3% between 7 to 8 teams and 15.6%  have played on 9 teams and more. For the position played, 13% are goalkeepers, 19.5%  are back players, 16.2% are stoppers, 32.5% are midfielders and 18.8 are forward players Table 2.

One-sample kolmogorov-smirnov tests

In this part, One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov  test  table is shown which indicates normal or non-normal distribution for analysis that are related to anger trait and angery word types of participant football players. In Table 3, it is seen that anger trait, introvert anger, extrovert anger and controlled anger sub dimensions are p>0.05. This shows us that the data are suitable for normal distribution.

In Table 4,  anger trait, introverted anger, extroverted anger and controlled anger sub dimensions are analyzed. Treat anger points of participants is found as X =21.43.  Accordingly, when maximum and minimum values are considered, (minimum is 10 and maximum is 40), the treat anger points X =21.43 is found to be lower than the mean. So, it can be said that participants trait anger point is low. Introverted anger points of participants is found as X =17.18. Accordingly, when maximum and minimum values are considered (min is 8 and max. is 32), it is concluded that the introverted anger point is below the mean. Extroverted anger points of participants is found as X =17.25. When maximum And minimum values are considered (min is 8 and max. is 32), it is concluded that the extroverted anger point is below the mean. Controlled anger points of participants is found as X =20.45. Accordingly, when maximum and minimum values are considered (min is 8 and max. is 32), it is concluded that the controlled anger point is below the mean. In conclusion, it can be said that participants’ anger trait, introverted anger, extroverted anger and controlled anger sub dimensions points are low. In Table 5, participants’ treat anger and anger wording sub dimensions point means are analyzed by t-test in order to know whether they are different in terms of educational variable.  At the end of the analysis, introverted anger dimension point mean is X =17.69 for high school graduate players and X =16.37 for University graduate players. 

While there is no meaningful difference for anger trait, extroverted anger and controlled anger, a meaningful difference for introvert anger is found in terms of introverted anger dimension as for education status variable (F:1.45; p>0.05). In Table 6, participants’ anger trait and anger wording sub dimensions point means are analyzed by F-test (Anova) in order to know whether they are different in terms of place of residence variable. At the end of the analysis, extroverted anger sub dimension point mean is  X =16.0 for those who mostly lived in the metropol, is X =17.29 for those who mostly lived in city, and is X =16.77 for those who mostly lived in town and is X =20.70 for whom mostly lived in the village. While there is no significant difference for trait anger, extroverted anger and controlled anger, a significant difference for introver anger was found in terms of place of residence variable (F:2.57;  p>0.05). In Table 7, participants’ anger trait and angery words sub dimensions point means are analyzed by F–test (Oneway Anova) in order to know whether they differ in terms of sports beginning age variable. At the end of the analysis, anger trait sub dimension point mean is X =18.5 for those who started playing sport between 5 and 7, are X =22.2 for those who started playing sport between 8 and 10, are X =21.92 for those who started playing sport between 11 and 13 are X =20.13 for those who started playing sport between 14 and 16. A significant difference was found in terms of anger trait dimension for sport starting age variable (F:3.328; p>0.05). In Table 8, participants’ anger trait and angery words sub dimensions point means are analyzed by F–test (Oneway Anova) in order to know whether they differ in terms of  years of playing football variable. At the end of the analysis, controlled anger sub-dimension point mean is X =18.65 for those who have played for 4 to 6 years, is X =19.70 for whom has played for 7 to 9 years, is X =20.80 for whom has played for 10 to 12 years, is X = 22.15 for whom has played for 13 to 15 year and is X =21.73 for whom has played for 15 and + years. A meaningful difference was found in terms of  anger treat dimension as for years of the playing football variable (F:3.027; p<0.05).

Anger trait and anger words of the participants’ average scores of the subscales in the survey was found out. At the end of this evaluation, as the footballers’ anger trait point mean is 21.43,  introverted anger point mean, anger wording sub dimension, is 17.18, extroverted anger type point mean is 17.25 and controlled anger type point mean is 20.45, it is understood that point means  are  low  when max. and min. values are considered. This study shows no  parallelism   with   Temel’s   PhD   thesis   (2015)   on physical education teachers for thier anger point average which is at mid level, however, it is concluded that this study shows parallelism in that controlled anger and extroverted anger sub dimension point scale is low. In another study done by Temel et al. (2015), it shows no parallelism with this study in that participant teachers’ anger trait point mean and controlled anger point mean, one of the anger trait and angery words sub dimension, are at mid level but it shows parallelism in that introverted and extroverted anger point means are low. When anger trait and angry words types were analyzed, significant difference can not be found on footballers’ age, marital status, teams they played, Father’s Job Status, Mother’s Job Status, How many teams he has played and position he plays. But, according to the players’ education status, it can be concluded that players who graduated from high school could not control their anger as well  as players who graduated from university could not keep the anger inside. It can be said that education has an important effect on anger control.

The study done by Yıldız (2008), showed that no parallelism difference between footballers’ education status and Introverted Anger were not found. On the other hand, it shows that there was significant difference between  footballers’  education  status  and  trait   anger, controlled anger and extroverted anger. According to the footballers’ place of residence, footballers living in the village displayed their anger more easily than the footballers living in the town. That’s why there is an important effect of the social environment on anger. The study done by Yöndem et al (2008) shows that there is a meaningful difference between the point mean of students who live in cities and students’ who live in the big cities. So, although there is no parallelism with this study about trait anger and extroverted anger, there is a parallelism between this study and introvert anger of Yöndem et al. study. According to the footballers’ begining age to the sports, Levels of the footballers’ anger  between 5 to 7 years are lower than footballers’ between 8 to 10 years in terms of their anger levels. This is beacuse they had just started, and the initial excitement was still at play. But it can be said that those who were neither too new nor too old, had higher anger levels (8 to 10 years), because they were adolescents; and their age influenced their anger management. The study done by Yıldız (2008) doesn’t show parallelism with this study. Because there is no meaningful difference in terms of the footballers’ anger trait, intoverted anger, extroverted anger and controlled anger. Finally, according to the duration of the footballers playing, it  can be said that footballers having played for 7 to 9 years compared to footballers having played for 10 to 12 years can not control their anger in terms of controlled anger. According to Turker’s study (2010), there were no significant difference between teachers whose mission time is different and trait anger, introverted and controlled anger. This result doesn’t show parallelism with this study being done.

The author has not declared any conflict of interests.

The author would like to thank Veysel Temel, Physical education and sports, for helping in the data acquisition.