This study conducted to explore K-League (Korea Professional Football League) referees’ psychological experience and coping strategies just after the moment of wrong judgment. Open-ended questionnaire were conducted on 35 full-time referees who participated in the K-League winter training camp. The data were categorized by inductive content analysis. The results were as follows. Psychological experience yielded 45 raw data points, which were based on the following 10 sub categories; increased anxiety, rumination wrong judgment, concern about reprimand, and feeling apologetic; and four general categories including, psychological fragmentation, feeling helpless, concern about reputation, and acknowledgment of wrong judgment. Thus, K-league referees experience a psychological turbulence just after the moment of the bad calls and worsen feelings of helplessness about the wrong decisions. Also, K-league referees worry about further disadvantages following the misjudgement and admit their bad calls feeling sorry for teams and athletes who were in the incidents. Coping strategies yielded 55 raw data points from which the following categories were identified 11 sub categories; increasing concentration, attempting to forget wrong judgment, apologizing on wrong judgment, and change in thinking; and four general categories including, emotional self-support, avoiding situation, correcting the error and thinking, and changing of refereeing approach. Therefore, K-league referees enhance their concentration in order to not reoccur wrong judgement after the moment of the mistakes and try to forget the incidents of wrong judgement. Also, K-league referees apology to the teams and athletes who experienced the bad calls and make efforts to correct the mistakes if possible. Moreover, K-league referees try to modify a criteria of judgement in order to manage aftereffects of wrong judgement and make decisions correctly by approaching the scenes of the wrong judgement. The study emphasizes the importance of referee psychological stability on the field and the need for psychological support. The study is expected to encourage further research on sports referees in Korea to ensure they receive appropriate psychological support.
