19. MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS

O-111 Artificial turf versus natural turf football playing fields: Risks and economics

Betül Sekendiz
Physical Education and Sports Department, Middle East Technical University, Turkey

OBJECTIVE This paper was based on the premise that leaders and managers of professional football clubs have a tendency to chose and maintain playing surfaces depending on its cost effectiveness, and the players' personal experi-ences and preferences about artificial turf are ignored. However, a large scale of injuries and safety risks has been asso-ciated with artificial turf resulting in loss of key player. The purpose of this study is to do a retrospective examination of studies done about the safety risks and costs of the artificial and natural turf football playing fields, and derive implica-tions for future research.

METHODS Retrospective examination of the relevant literature.

RESULTS It was derived from this study that there were many safety risks inherent in the artificial turf football pitches, and the claims of low maintenance costs of the artificial turf was discredited with cost concerns such as the incidences of burns caused by fans in the stadia, warranty concerns, and the health costs of the injured football players.

DISCUSSION This study examined safety risks and economic concerns associated with the artificial turf versus natu-ral turf football pitches. Future research was needed to examine the incidence of injuries of the professional football players on artificial and natural turf pitches, their perceptions about the two types of turf, and the costs of the artificial versus natural turf in professional football clubs.

KEY WORDS Artificial turf, natural turf, risks, costs, football.

O-112 Sports manager activities in professional and non-professional Portuguese soccer organizations

Victor Maçãs¹, Rui Claudino², António Serôdio-Fernandes¹ and Jaime Sampaio^1
1University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (utad), ²Faculty of Human Kinetics, Lisbon

OBJECTIVE Currently, soccer implies game and business. Sports Managers (SM) should combine these two complex universes in soccer organizations (SO). It is important to know the managerial work (Danylchuk & Chelladurai, 1999) done by Chief Executive Officer in SO and the tasks and responsibilities he must do to answer future challenges, in a prospective and dynamic view of sport business (Smith & Westerbeek, 2004). This study was concerned with the SM activities in Portuguese professional and non-professional soccer organizations. The issue brought up three fundamental questions: (i) how are SO in Portugal? (ii) what is the Portuguese soccer SM profile? (iii) which is the nature of mana-gerial activities in Portuguese SO?

METHODS An analysis model was conceived to answer fundamental questions. The sample was composed of 69 Portuguese SO to obtain information concerning 124 SM. The data was collected by documentary analysis, interviews and questionnaire. Results were analysed using Mann-Whitney, Kuskal-Wallis tests, and content analysis.

RESULTS The financial management, revenue generation and leadership was considered as the most important activi-ties in opposition to routine activities of liaison and information seeking (Table 1). A positive association was con-firmed between the importance and time taken in managerial activities. Top-level SM and intermediate-level SM re-sponsibilities were complementary (high significant and negative association).

Table 1 Relationship between the importance and time taken in managerial activities.

DISCUSSION In professional and non-professional soccer, the importance of managerial activities was considered to be similar in contrast to time taken in managerial activities. SM human capital was intangible and essential to SO com-petitiveness and sustainable development. This study showed that Portuguese sport managers were decisive in the sport organizations'' performance improvement, as well as in the strategies, politics and mission definition.

REFERENCES
Danylchuk et al. (1999) Journal of Sport Management 13, 148-166.
Smith et al. (2004) The Sport Business Future. Palgrave Macmillan.

KEY WORDS Sport manager; soccer organizations; soccer management; soccer manager; professional profile; knowl-edge management

O-113 Effects of air travel on career longevity in the Australian football league

Brian Dawson
University of Western Australia

OBJECTIVE In the Australian Football League (AFL) there are 16 teams, 10 from one city (Melbourne, Victoria) and 6 from other State capital cities. Teams from Western Australia have to travel (by air) the greatest distances across a season to play away games. As a consequence, several clubs in Melbourne have suggested that players who travel more may have their careers shortened due to travel related cumulative fatigue, in order to entice players back to Victoria (from other states) to continue their careers. This study investigated whether players from the 6 non-Victorian clubs in the AFL have relatively shorter careers than players from Victoria, perhaps due to more regular travelling by plane.

METHODS All players who tallied 150 or more AFL games in 1987-2005 were categorized by club, and also as "non-Victorian, and Victorian players. Longevity was assessed by games played in three categories: 150-199, 200-249 and 250+ games, and tallying the number of players and average total games for each. Percentage of total player games and average games played by 150+ game players was calculated.

RESULTS For number of players with 150+ games, games played by 150+ game players and percentage of total player games played by 150+ game players, two non-Victorian clubs (West Coast and Brisbane) were ranked highest. When club results were pooled to form non-Victorian and Victorian players, .No differences were found for mean games played for 150-199, 200-249 and 250+game players.

DISCUSSION The results showed that "non-Victorian" clubs (West Coast Eagles and Brisbane Lions) were consis-tently ranked highest and that no differences existed between "non-Victorian" and "Victorian" players in any of the indicators of career longevity. The results of this study showed that regular travel by plane does not have a negative impact on career longevity in the AFL.

KEY WORDS Career length, air travel, Australian football.

O-114 Effect of European football loan system and duration period on football economy

Cem Cetin
Kocaeli University Physical Education and Sports Vocational School, Turkey

OBJECTIVES One of the major problems of the forever growing football industry is the football clubs' desire to make themselves well known and more valued with the loan they have been given. Spending more money than they can af-ford to, puts football clubs in a great deal of danger and this pattern they follow puts a threat on their future success. This paper's aim was to warn the European and Turkish football clubs about the dangers that can occur with those ac-quired loans and provide appropriate suggestions and solutions to resolve these issues.

METHOD Deductive method was used.

RESULTS Among clubs in Europe, Italy, Spain and England were the most affected countries by the European Foot-ball Loan. Clubs in Italy which has the highest level depth had experienced financial problems while trying to compete in the league. The number of fans attending football matches also decreased which result in bankruptcy for some of the soccer clubs who were not able to find the financial support they needed.
DISCUSSION The only way this problem can be solved is by having frequent and thorough inspections as imple-mented in France. If other countries also could develop such a system the challenge among teams would not be affected that much and huge amount of financial loans would not be given out.

KEY WORDS Football economy, television, sport, transfer fees, football clubs.

O-115 Quality of sports administrators in the 1st and 2nd league football clubs in Turkey (Ankara as sample)

Hakan Sunay and Erkan Cayci
School of Physical Education and Sport, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.

OBJECTIVES Football has become a market driven industry with the scientific and technical developments. There-fore, it is necessary to determine an effective administration strategy in football. This is only possible with the works of contemporary sports administrators doing the necessities of the time. Thus, this study can be related with on the quality of the sports administration. The aim was to evaluate the opinions of the administrators of the 1st and 2nd league foot-ball clubs on "the qualities of staff working in the field of the sports", comparatively in Ankara

METHODS The subjects were the administrators of 1st league (n: 18), and 2nd league(n: 68) football clubs in the Tur-key. The instrument was a questionnaire that assessed the ideas and views related to the quality of sports administrators. The reliability coefficient has been found out as ? = 96. The arithmetic mean (X) and standard deviation (SD) values of the qualities in the every part of the questionnaire have been determined. In the detecting of the difference of opinion, the T test has been used.

Table 1; Most of the sports administrators joining the research have had positive attitudes against the qualities.

RESULTS Most of the sports administrators joining the research have had positive attitudes against the qualities of "General Culture" "Sports field knowledge" and "Sports management occupation knowledge" as the table stated. The rate of the necessity of knowing a language was 97% for the 2nd League Football administrators.

DISCUSSION The 1st league football club administrators all agreed with the item "The use of the mother language is well", and the 2nd league football club administrators are wholly agree that evaluate according to Likert scale the ad-ministrators are qualified in good communication. The use of the mother tongue effectively, is highly important in hav-ing a good communication with the staff.

KEY WORDS Turkcell Super League soccer, second league soccer, the qualities of sports administrators.