Toe the touchline

Research is underway into the controversial subject of football pitch-side aggression. 

Jimmy O'Gorman, Senior Lecturer in Sports Development, led a research team involving Dr David Marchant and Kenny Greenough, to observe the behaviour firsthand.  Recording video footage of local soccer teams within Merseyside, the footage focused on behaviour on and off the field of play, recording actions and responses of parents, coaches and spectators. The video cameras were set up to observe the interacting relationship to objectively measure all events that occurred. 

Jimmy said: "We wanted to address people's behaviour at grass-roots level. We didn't want to evaluate them - just try to get some understanding of why people behave that way in their own terms by reflecting upon their own actions.

"We knew that because the cameras were there people would behave differently; that was part of the outcomes of the research in assessing whether people's behaviour altered if they were under the impression they were being monitored, but we did see a wide range of behaviour.  

"Once the footage had been collected and edited we held focus groups to ask people why they had behaved in a particular way. The parents said it made them think twice, and both coaches and parents came to us afterwards saying they would like to be involved in further research. 

"Coaches thought they were being encouraging but the children perceived their actions as quite aggressive. Other children said ‘they were only trying to help me play better'. In general, the young players simply didn't like being shouted at or that some got more praise than others." 

The research team had the assistance of ‘Don't Cross the Line', a Liverpool-based group currently working with many professional football clubs to address aggressive behaviour on the touchline. The research project has also been featured on Sky Sports.

The findings should be available early in the new year and plans are being made to expand the research to a more longitudinal study so that current behaviour can also be followed up at a later date . Jimmy is now seeking funding for further research and is also encouraging students or anyone involved in grassroots football to get involved with the project with a view to using some recorded footage for their own research investigation.