Relationship between Iranꞌs National Football Team results and citizensꞌ happiness

Abstract

The influence of success and failure in international sporting competitions on the  psycho-social life of citizens has been under-researched. This one-group pre-post-test design aimed to investigate the influence of the results of Iran’s national football team in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup on the happiness in Iranian citizens. The study was  conducted in three stages: 1) before the start of the competitions; 2) after the  qualifying rounds; and 3) after the team’s knockout loss in the quarter-finals. A sample of 320 respondents was drawn by means of the multistage sampling method from the  citizens of Yasouj in Iran (age range=18 to 50 years). The Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI) was used for collecting data. The results show that happiness significantly  increased in the qualifying round, however, happiness plummeted after the team’s loss against Iraq in the quarter-finals. The present study concludes that the results of  national football teams in international competitions can affect the happiness of citizens.

Key words: Oxford Happiness Inventory; Football; AFC Asian Cup; Iran.