Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the
influence of management ethics on the performance of Nigerian Professional
Football League clubs in Lagos state. The descriptive survey research design
was adopted for this study. The population of this study consisted of all
footballers, coaches, medical personnel and administrators from MFM and Ikorodu
United football clubs in the Nigerian Professional Football League. The sample
for this study consisted of one-hundred (100) footballers, coaches, medical
personnel and administrators from MFM and Ikorodu United football clubs in the
Nigerian Professional Football League. They were selected through the
convenience sampling technique. A total of forty (40) footballers, two (2)
coaches, three (3) medical personnel and four (5) administrators will be
selected each from MFM and Ikorodu United football clubs in the Nigerian
Professional Football League. A self-developed questionnaire was used to
collect the information for the study. The questionnaire was validated by the
supervisor and other experts in sports administration and management. The
reliability of the research instrument was determined through a test-retest
reliability method by administering twenty (20) copies validated questionnaire
twice to footballers in Shooting stars football club within two weeks interval.
Results
from the reliability test shows a Pearson Correlation value of 0.81 which
indicates the instrument was reliable; thus it was adopted for data collection.
The descriptive statistics of frequency and
percentages was used to analyze demographic data of the respondents. The
inferential statistics of Chi-Square (x2) will be used to test all
stated hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. Four research hypotheses
were tested and results indicated that management’s objectivity, transparency,
equity and fairness would all significantly influence performance of Nigerian
Professional Football League clubs in Lagos state. The study hereby recommends that football club owners in the professional
league should ensure proper management’s objectivity in other to foster
an improved performance of Nigerian Professional Football League clubs in Lagos
state.
Keywords: Nigerian
Professional Football League, MFM, Ikorodu United, Management’s Ethics,
Objectivity, Transparency, Equity and Fairness
TABLE OF CONTENT
PAGES
Title page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgment iv
Abstract v
Table
of Content vi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background
of the Study 1
Statement of the Problem 5
Purpose
of the Study 5
Research
Questions 6
Research
Hypotheses 7
Significance of the Study 7
Limitation
of the Study 8
Delimitation of the Study 8
Definition of Terms 8
CHAPTER TWO : LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction 10
History of Nigeria Premier League 11
The League Management Company 14
Past Winners of the Nigerian
Premier League 17
An Overview of Soccer 16
Theorization of Power and Emancipation 20
The Dictates of Administrators 23
The Player Labor Response and
Resistance 30
The concept of ethics 33
Dimensions of Ethics 36
Ethical Perspectives 37
CHAPTER THREE : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design 41
Population 41
Sample and Sampling Technique 42
Research Instrument 42
Validity of Research Instrument 42
Reliability of Research Instrument 43
Procedure of Data Collection 43
Procedure of Data Analysis 43
Pilot Study 43
CHAPTER FOUR : ANALYSIS, INTERPRETATION AND
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
Data Presentation 44
Testing Stated
Hypotheses 47
Discussion of
Findings 50
CHAPTER FIVE:
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction 53
Summary 53
Conclusion 55
Recommendations 55
REFERENCES 57
APPENDIX
I: QUESTIONNAIRE 61
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Within a global context, sport plays
a significant role in the generation of economic activity and in the provision
of services to spectators, participants, communities, athletes, coaches,
administrators and the corporate sector (Maguire, 2005). Increasingly, Governments see sport as an
important element of their policy frameworks. In some cases, legislative
frameworks have been established regulating the operation of sport. Managing
football clubs today is a multi-billion dollar business and various management
ethics has to be followed in the management of these clubs. Management ethics refers to a set of principles and rules dictated by upper management
in a football club that define what is right and what is wrong in terms of equity, fairness,
transparency and objectivity.
European football is of increasing
importance to ongoing research in International business and business
administration because it is a huge and fast growing business, operating
worldwide – but still lacks systematic knowledge. This is a bold statement
because, it is backed by many arguments: football is highly popular (this in
itself should generate interest in research); it has rabid fans (whose
sociology is well researched); it involves high uncertainty (the outcome of a
game is not always the same as winning a game); and it is an activity where
ethnic, gender, social, and economic backgrounds are irrelevant to its practice
(but still of great interest to spectators). The skillful team or the talented
football player are visibly obvious; this is intuitively perceived by all
spectators.
The game of football has become
famous because it is generally linked to our childhood, and its professional
teams are on top of pyramid-like organizations of several leagues, with amateur
players at all levels, from silver aged teams to kid's teams. And football
today is a international business, as players are transferred frequently around
the globe, international professional leagues are created, and the European Cup
finals or the FIFA World Cup finals are top media events (Beech & Chadwick
2004; Horne & Manzenreiter, 2002; Dauncey & Hare 1999).
In recent years, the world of
football has been referred to more and more as an industry in its own sake. Its
characteristics have been getting closer to those of services or the
entertainment business, as people worldwide may choose whether to go to the
cinema, to an amusement park or to the stadium to watch a match. The ranking of
football as a business activity has risen in the economies of those countries where
football is promoted as national sport. In many of these countries, it
represents today a large percentage of a nation’s GDP, because football events
also drive a considerable number of other sectors, such as media and different
services, like catering and transportation.
The globalization of the football
industry has provoked a concentration of resources in the hands of a few big
European and South American clubs, which have had the ability and, most of all,
the economic resources to face enlarged competition from foreign clubs and
other businesses in the entertainment industry. We have a multibillion EURO
business in professional football which is hardly at all recognized in
scientific articles as recently illustrated by Nilsson (2005). And this is
becoming a truly international business, as the same few rules on the visible
pitch enable skillful players regardless of their ethnic and social background
to play in those teams which create enormous media interest. The problems and
challenges in the field of football are the same everywhere on the globe, such
as amateurism vs. professionalism, young players going to big clubs, league
teams versus national teams, branding and sponsorship growing as a source of
revenue and media creating uncertain expectations for better incomes.
Football has successfully
outmaneuvered many other team sports, such as ice hockey, basketball or
handball, and has been accepted as the number one sport with regard to media
attention and audience reception worldwide (Horne & Manzenreiter 2002). According
to FIFA (the football international governing body, Fédération Internationale
de Football Association) statistics the FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan set a new
record for a sports event of 49.2 billion people worldwide in terms of viewer
hours. The 2002 Final between Brazil and Germany was the most viewed match in
FIFA World Cup history, with 1.1 billion individuals watching the game, and
being broadcasted in 213 countries worldwide. For the 2002FIFA World Cup
Korea/Japan finals FIFA and the internet partner Yahoo! signed a contract on
the establishment and management of the official FIFA World Cup website, a
six-language data bank with ample chances for premium services and various
e-shops centered around football. Details of the deal were not made public, as it
is mostly the case in the field of football, but a volume of sales worth at
least 25 million EURO has been predicted (Horne & Manzenreiter 2002).
Already on day 8 of the matches, FIFA announced that the Official Website
counted more than 100 million pages viewed per day, making it the most
successful sports-event website ever, overtaking the Salt Lake City Olympics
Games and the Official Website of the Euro 2000, the European Football
Championship Finals in 2000.
Looking at the football phenomenon,
there is need to consider explicitly the role of government in its relationship
to football. To this end, it is necessary to understand the philosophy of the
governing body, FIFA, and the environment for mega sports events created by
governments worldwide. This is not merely an economic matter, as “football has
always been one of the most convenient sports for serving political aims.
Through successful performance of national teams it provides a reliable
platform for displays of national capability and the instilling of national
pride” (Butler 2002). Japan and South Korea had their own reasons for wanting
to host the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The Koreans aimed at introducing the finals as
a “catalyst for peace” (Sugden & Tomlinson, 2002) on the Korean peninsula,
and the Japanese focused their bid on its ability to promote political
stability, high technology and the country’s infrastructure (Sugden &
Tomlinson 2002). With its decision to award the tournament for the first time
in history to Asian hosts and to more than a single nation, the FIFA moved
strategically towards the globalization of football. In the bid to host the
2006 FIFA World Cup South Africa failed in 2000, losing to Germany only by a
single vote in the final round. It was argued by BBC Sports that a vote for
South Africa was seen as a vote for Africa - which has never hosted a World Cup
tournament before, despite exporting some of the world's finest soccer players
to Europe and other parts of the world - as well as a vote for developing
countries. 3 But on 15May 2004, history had been made: it was the time of
Africa and South Africa to stage the world's greatest sporting festival. With
14 votes to Morocco's 10 and Egypt's none, South Africa had been chosen as host
of the 2010 FIFA World Cup from the first round of voting.
Statement
of the Problem
Most Nigerian professional football
league clubs are faced with many challenges affecting their players and staffs
and this leads to very low standard of the League when compared to other
countries. The performance of Nigerian professional football league teams is as
a result of many management ethics problems which could be avoided with proper
administration and planning. In management, equity, fairness,
transparency, objectivity among others has been observed by the
researcher as Management ethics factors which could influence the performance
of Nigerian Professional Football League Clubs. This formed the rationale for
this study which is to examine the influence of management ethics on the
performance of Nigerian Professional Football League clubs in Lagos state.
Purpose
of the Study
The purpose of the study was to
examine the influence of management ethics on the performance of Nigerian
Professional Football League clubs in Lagos state. Other purpose of this study
include:
1.
To examine the influence of management’s
objectivity on the performance of Nigerian Professional Football League clubs
in Lagos state
2.
To determine the influence of management’s
transparency on the performance of Nigerian Professional Football League clubs
in Lagos state
3.
To examine the influence of management’s
equity on the performance of Nigerian Professional Football League clubs in
Lagos state
4.
To find out the influence of management’s
fairness on the performance of Nigerian Professional Football League clubs in
Lagos state
Research Questions
The following research questions were raised in the study:
1.
Would management’s objectivity influence
the performance of Nigerian Professional Football League clubs in Lagos state?
2.
Would management’s transparency
influence the performance of Nigerian Professional Football League clubs in
Lagos state?
3.
Would management’s equity
influence the performance of Nigerian Professional Football League clubs in
Lagos state?
4.
Would management’s fairness
influence the performance of Nigerian Professional Football League clubs in
Lagos state?
Research Hypotheses
The
following research hypotheses were formulated and tested in the study:
1.
Management’s objectivity would not
significantly influence performance of Nigerian Professional Football League
clubs in Lagos state.
2.
Management’s transparency would not
significantly influence performance of Nigerian Professional Football League
clubs in Lagos state.
3.
Management’s equity would not
significantly influence performance of Nigerian Professional Football League
clubs in Lagos state.
4.
Management’s fairness would not
significantly influence performance of Nigerian Professional Football League
clubs in Lagos state.
Significance of the Study
This study could be of significance in the following ways:
1.
Empirical observations have shown that
excellent performance of players in league clubs is in part dependent on
management ethics. The outcome of this research work might inform the
organizers/management of leagues the imperativeness of making positive as well
as conducive hygiene factor for the players.
2.
The results of this study might be
beneficial to league organizers in terms of the necessity to direct management
ethics to favour the needs and interest of the players as an inducement to
optimal performance of the players.
3.
The study could prompt or sensitize the
authorities in charge of league to tailor the welfare packages towards players
friendly as this may enhance the loyalty and commitment of players in form of
putting up their best to win for the glory of the clubs.
Limitation of the Study
The
problem encountered during this research work was in the area of getting
players and coaches of the clubs during their busy schedule to fill the
questionnaires. This problem was tackled by first discussing with the club
management on the aim of the study and also request for permission to fill out
the research instrument during the team’s free time immediately after training.
Delimitation of the Study
This
study was delimited to the following:
1. Survey
research design.
2. 50
soccer players and coaches in MFM and Ikorodu United Football Club.
3. Use
of questionnaire for information gathering.
4. Simple
frequency counts of percentages and inferential statistics of Chi-Square (x2)
for testing the stated hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.
Operational Definition of Terms
Football:
A type of sport that involves two teams (where each team is made up of
11players) competing for the winner by scoring the highest goal.
Management Ethics: This
refers to a set of principles and rules dictated by upper management in a football club that
define
what is right and what is wrong in terms of equity, fairness, transparency and
objectivity.
Management’s Equity:
This is the net amount of funds invested in a professional
football club by its owners, plus any retained earnings.
Management’s Fairness: This is
the quality management in a football club making judgments that are free from
discrimination.
Management’s Objectivity:
It refers to a lack of bias, judgment, or prejudice by the
management of a professional football club.
Management’s Transparency:
This implies openness,
communication, and accountability
by the management of a professional football club. Transparency is operating in
such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed.
NPL: NPL is an
acronym for Nigeria Premier League which is the professional football league in
Nigeria.
Professional Football League: This
refers to a league
competition featuring professional
football clubs from various regions in a country.
Sports:
Any organized physical activity like football where participants are motivated
by internal and external rewards.
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