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. 2025 Mar 1;35(2):177-183.
doi: 10.1097/JSM.0000000000001317. Epub 2024 Dec 10.

A Questionnaire-Based Analysis of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Psychological Health of Key Stakeholders Within an Elite Sports Organization

Richard Collinge  1 , Matt Springham  2
Affiliations

A Questionnaire-Based Analysis of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Psychological Health of Key Stakeholders Within an Elite Sports Organization

Richard Collinge et al. Clin J Sport Med. .

Abstract

Objective: To examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological health of key stakeholders within an elite UK sports organization.

Design: The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) was sent electronically to 500 employees, and 8 face-to-face interviews were conducted at an elite-level professional football club.

Setting: English Premier League (EPL) Football Club.

Participants: Office/stadium staff, coaching/backroom staff, players from the male U23, women's and men's senior teams.

Independent variables: Stakeholder groups that were invited to participate in the study: office/stadium staff, coaching/backroom staff, players from the U23, women's and men's senior teams, and variables of age and gender.

Main outcome measure: WEMWBS scores across the office/stadium staff, coaching/backroom staff, and player cohort.

Results: Of 122 responses (24% response rate) and 8 face-face interviews, the average WEMWBS score was 51.2 (SD ±8.4) and 14% of the cohort presented with scores suggestive of a higher risk of depression. The main findings were moderate effect size differences in WEMWBS scores with the players scoring higher than both the office/stadium staff ( P = 0.01) and the coaching/backroom staff ( P = 0.01).

Conclusions: Office/stadium staff experienced greater compromising mental health effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, as compared with the coaching/backroom staff and players, respectively, suggesting that elite sports organizations should also consider providing mental health education and signposting strategies for this area of the workforce.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

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