ABSTRACT
The impact of sport psychology in professional football has been much less than in many other sports. Some of the reasons for this are the nature of the sport, its culture and its attitude towards new ideas. In relation to this, Nesti (2010) has outlined the main challenges that sport psychologists have faced in working inside EPL clubs at first team levels. For example, problems around measuring the effect of sport psychology work on performance, finding time to do the work and gaining ‘buy in’ from players and staff are likely to be universal experiences. It can be argued that despite national and cultural differences, many of these obstacles exist throughout the sport, especially at professional and elite levels. In a British context there may be other particular difficulties to overcome, such as antipathy towards academic or scientific input, rejection of psychology as merely common sense or a belief that the coaches are able to cover the work of sport psychologists.
