A CROSS-SECTIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE CHALLENGES FACED BY HUNGARIAN WOMEN’S FIRST DIVISION FOOTBALL TEAMS BASED ON COACHES AND PLAYERS STATISTICS

The current situation experienced by football clubs in the Hungarian women’s first division was analyzed. It was assumed that: one of the obstacles for the development is the presence of non-skilled sports experts (H1); all the foreign players achieve better results than the Hungarians (H2); and the foreign players are older than the Hungarians on average (H3). Material and methods . In this study, the qualifications of the coaches in women’s football were compared with those in the men’s first division. The number of games played, performance statistics and average age amongst the players were studied as well. The data was analyzed using crosstab and two sample T-tests. Results. H1 was confirmed by T-test and the significant result between the two groups was p =0.00. H2 was confirmed as well: the performance analysis was significant and the foreign players achieve better results ( p =0.001). The Hungarian players have better results in terms of the number of games, the number of performances in the starting lineup and the number of seasons played in the first division. Conclusions. The examined problems in Hungarian women’ s football have been proven. All the areas of women’ s football considered in this study require development, especially in terms of the academic qualities of the coaches, which widely affect the team’ performance.