Artificial Intelligence-Based Psychological Readiness Assessment for Football Referees: A Preliminary Need Assessment Study

Abstract

Football referees are required to make rapid, accurate, and emotionally controlled decisions under complex and high-pressure match situations. Although refereeing performance is commonly associated with physical fitness, technical knowledge, and mastery of the Laws of the Game, psychological readiness before officiating remains under-assessed, particularly through systematic, digital, and data-driven mechanisms. This study aimed to examine the perceived need for developing an artificial intelligence-based psychological readiness assessment model for football referees. A quantitative descriptive design with a preliminary need assessment approach was employed. Thirty active football referees participated in this study, consisting of 15 referees from Aceh and 15 referees from North Sumatra. Respondents were selected using purposive sampling. Data were collected using a 66-item questionnaire covering nine dimensions: pre-match psychological experience, anxiety assessment need, concentration assessment need, emotional intelligence assessment need, video-based case analysis need, breathing and self-regulation feature need, AI-based analysis and recommendation need, technical application feature need, and implementation readiness. Data were analyzed using item validity testing, reliability testing, descriptive statistics, categorization, and Shapiro–Wilk normality testing. The instrument demonstrated excellent internal consistency, with an overall Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.968. The overall mean score of the need assessment was 4.325, indicating a very high level of need. The highest mean score was found in technical application features, followed by AI-based analysis and recommendation, video-based case analysis, and implementation readiness. Subgroup descriptive analysis showed that referees from both Aceh and North Sumatra reported consistently high to very high levels of need. These findings suggest that football referees require a practical, mobile-based, secure, and intelligent system to support psychological readiness assessment before matches. Further research is required to develop, validate, and test the effectiveness of the proposed model in larger referee populations.