Motivational Structure for Sports Practice during COVID-19 Pandemic in Professional Football Players

Abstract

Investigating of the athletes’ motivation for sports practice is necessary to encourage them to participate in sport, and continue exercising. During the Covid-19 pandemic period due to changes in athletes’ routines, the role of motivation to play sports could be even more important. The research aimed to determine the motivation structure for sports practice in football players with the help of factor analysis. The sample of respondents consisted of 360 professional football players (21.71±4.42 years) from the Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A questionnaire on motivation for sports during the Covid-19 pandemic period was used, consisting of 18 items related to motivation to play sports and modified according to the Participation Motivation Questionnaire (PMQ). A five-point Likert scale was used in the questionnaire. The questionnaire was in electronic form and was sent to the football players via Google form. Factor analysis identified six dimensions: ‘Sport success’, ‘Support’, ‘Social status’, ‘Friendship’, ‘Physical health’, and ‘Sports activities’. These six dimensions explain the total manifest motivation participation space with 62.26% of the total variance. In conclusion, this study contributed to the understanding of the motivational structure of professional football players for playing sports. That is, the main motivational dimensions for engaging and committing to sports during the Covid-19 pandemic were singled out. This all points to the importance of this research and may serve future studies that will examine the motivational structure of professional athletes.