The conditions of professional football are such that the conclusion is a priority. Indeed, across the world, sports managers, spectators, and players exert all their efforts to secure a better position in football, leading to a short-term culture in the professional game. The consequence is that it creates immense pressure on the elements involved in the outcomes, including managers, coaches, and players. However, referees play a significant role in achieving results and establishing fairness. Referees must make critical decisions under high-pressure conditions, and each of their decisions can lead to substantial financial changes in the sport of football at the highest levels.
Referees’ decisions are frequently discussed and evaluated. Perhaps the mistakes made by referees are more noticeable than those made by players and coaches. To manage such a high-pressure environment, it is necessary to have referees with very strong personality traits. Referees who can control the pressure must have a high mental strength and take sufficient daily actions to improve their performance quality. The personality of referees is a subject that receives less attention, and the aim of this research was to examine the personality traits of top Iranian football referees. The statistical population was all the referees participating in the mid-season class of 2023, out of whom one hundred and fifty-four completed the Five-Factor Personality questionnaire. This questionnaire includes subscales of neuroticism, extraversion, introversion, openness to new experiences, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. After analyzing the data, the results showed that Iranian football referees scored high in the constructs of conscientiousness and agreeableness, but did not score high in the factors of neuroticism and openness to new experiences. Openness to new experiences can help referees try new things in their lives and benefit from them to improve their performance. The factor of neuroticism also scored low, which could be due to a lack of cultural support and strong backing for refereeing, which includes negative emotions, fear and sadness, arousal, anger, guilt, and other issues. Considering the research results and the impact of personality on the quality of refereeing, it is suggested that in addition to mental factors, the personality traits of referees should also be examined, and if necessary, essential interventions should be carried out on them to improve the quality of refereeing.