ASPIRING football stars who attend universities across the country do not study hard enough to give themselves a back-up career plan, researchers in Chester claim.
Instead, the University of Chester study found many were simply copying material from the internet and then to each other to pass their courses.
The research was conducted with 302 apprentice footballers with professional football clubs across the country.
Dr Andy Smith and PHD student Chris Platts, from the university’s department of sport and exercise sciences and Chester Centre for Research into Sport and Society, found that some apprentices said that their tutors rarely reported them for copying others’ work, and encouraged ‘learned helplessness’.
The findings were presented at the British Sociological Association's annual conference in Glasgow on Wednesday, April 7.
Dr Smith said: “The boredom that players experienced while completing their educational courses was in part related to the tendency for them to simply copy and paste their work from sources such as the internet, other course materials and, in some cases, from each other.
“In this regard, many players to whom we spoke were of the opinion that their ability to copy others’ work meant that they frequently did not learn much, if anything, from the time they spent studying for their qualifications.
“While there were sanctions in place that punished them should they engage in the plagiarism of others’ work, some players claimed to do so because when they were caught they were often simply told by their tutors to change aspects of their work."