The World's Most Popular Team Sport is Football

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Football is the world’s most popular team sport. In England, football is the most participated team sport with over 1.8 million people playing weekly (Sport England, 2013) and with an estimated 25 million people in England watching football on a regular basis would suggest that it is very popular and therefore an important sport throughout the country. Football has always been a male dominated sport, with 12 men to every 1 woman taking part (Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation , 2012). However, women’s football is now the fourth largest team sport in England after men’s team sports of football, rugby and cricket (The Football Association, 2012 ), and the number one leading female team participation sport with 253,600 women football regularly playing each month (Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation , 2012) these participation numbers resulting in the FA supporting 6,600 girls’ and women’s 11-a-side teams across the country. Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation (2012) found that one in ten football players receive coaching from a female coach. There are over 27, 000 females successfully attained a FA coaching qualification in 2012 (The Football Association, 2012) and double the number of female coaches from 25, 000 in 2009 to around 50, 000 in 2012 (The Football Association, 201 2). With this recent popularity in football and increase in female participation and coaches, research has begun to focus on females in sport more frequently.

Football teams are assembled together with a large number of roles; players, coaches, managers, specific positional coaches, treasurers, even physiotherapists depending on what level of football the team is playing at. The most common roles in grassroots football teams are known to hold just playe...

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...aim of this research project has therefore been to try and establish a better understanding of female footballer player’s perceptions of male and female coaches and whether the gender of the coach affects the coach-athlete relationship. This study aimed to address the following research question of “Is the coach-athlete relationship enhanced if the coach is the same gender as the athletes?” this was conducted in the form of a questionnaire with data being gathered from the University of Worcester ladies football club, first and second teams. The findings from these set groups should make an important contribution to the field of sports coaching and the psychological aspect of the coach-athlete relationship. A full discussion of the coach-athlete relationship lies beyond the scope of this study, with previous research being investigated and new research being created.

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