Özet:

Abstract The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed societies to extraordinary effects, like other pandemics in the World history that have dragged countries into crises in health, economy, social order and many aspects. Another major impact of this process which threatens human health was seen in the economic field. Weakness in the management of the process, the inability of the sectors to manage the change and crisis, the interruption of all national and international economic activities as a result of long bans and closures have caused a rapidly growing economic crisis. It has become inevitable to affect the sports sector in general, football sector in particular. Football leagues and championships in the World and in Turkey have been postponed and matches have been canceled one after another. Therefore, clubs could not obtain their basic income sources such as matchday revenues, ticket revenues, broadcasting revenues and their advertising and sponsorship relations were also damaged. In the lower leagues, which have a low market share in the football market, this economic crisis has manifested itself more severely. The deepest reflections of the economic problems experienced in the lower leagues which even have limited current income sources were seen in the football labor market. In this study, the pandemic experiences of the players in the lower leagues were discussed in terms of wage and income problems. The sample of the study consists of 11 football players who played football in the lower leagues during the pandemic process. In the study, “Semi-structured in-depth interview” which is a research technique specific to “Qualitative Method” was applied. The interviews were recorded on a voice recorder and transferred to the “Word” text. The relevant findings (texts) were subjected to content analysis and classified under 3 themes that reflect the main problematics of the subject: 1. Wages and loss of income, 2. Transfer relations, 3. Administrative problems. In general, the following conclusions emerge from the data of the study: Football players have left their receivables in the clubs and lost their income. The economic grievances experienced during the pandemic process have caused the football players to be unemployed or to quit football and change their profession. The increased corona test and health expenses of the clubs due to the pandemic were reflected against the players in the transfer relations. Administrative decisions taken by the clubs and the football federation have reduced the wages of the players.

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