Professional players in the Iraqi Premier League: The circumstances and challenges that accompanied their performance during the first professional football season (2023/2024) and ways to overcome them

Authors

  • زانا هاشم إسماعيل جامعة الحمدانية/ كلية التربية البدنية وعلوم الرياضة

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31185/wjoss.723

Keywords:

Challenges, Professional Players, Iraqi Premier League

Abstract

There are many problems facing professional players when they play professionally inside or outside their countries, in addition to the many pressures that foreign professional players face in their clubs, including psychological pressures related to performance and competition, social and psychological challenges that athletes may not be able to face, and other challenges. The research aimed to identify the level of circumstances that accompany the performance of professional players in football clubs participating in the Iraqi Premier League, and what are the challenges they face. To apply the research procedures, the researchers used the descriptive approach in its survey style to suit the nature of the research and its objectives. The researchers chose foreign professional players active in the Iraqi Premier League for the football sports season (2023/2024), as the number of these players is (120) players of Arab and foreign nationalities as a primary sample for the research. Then, these players were distributed into three sub-sample samples:

  • The exploratory study sample, which includes (10) players.
  • The construction sample, which includes (66) players.
  • The application sample, which includes (44) players.

In order to collect the required data in this research, the researchers resorted to building a scale to measure the conditions that accompany the performance of professional players with (27) paragraphs belonging to five dimensions. The researchers followed a set of scientific steps in the construction process. After applying the scale and obtaining the results, the researchers concluded a set of conclusions, the most important of which are:

- The conditions that accompany the performance of professional players in the Iraqi Premier League clubs were of a low level in terms of their suitability for them, and in terms of their ability to provide their life and sports needs and requirements.

- The challenges facing professional players in the Iraqi Premier League clubs were high level.

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Published

2025-03-30

How to Cite

إسماعيل ز. ه. (2025). Professional players in the Iraqi Premier League: The circumstances and challenges that accompanied their performance during the first professional football season (2023/2024) and ways to overcome them. Wasit Journal of Sports Sciences, 23(1), 580-601. https://doi.org/10.31185/wjoss.723