摘要：Objective. The purpose of this study is to highlight the importance of education in the behaviour of athletespracticing performance sports. Ethics in sport means everything related to an athlete’s behaviour duringcompetitions and in social life and it reflects in the fair play attitude of athletes. Fair play does not entail only theobservance of play rules, but it transcribes the attitude an athlete must have: respect for the opponent and thepreservation of his physical and mental integrity, respect for the team-mates, for coaches, supporters, etc. An athletewill behave according to the spirit of fair play when he thinks about the others, too. Fair play is not only an ethicalbehaviour or a fortuitous behaviour; it represents an entire code of morals, a psychology, a code of unwritten laws.Methods. Our research comprised 60 athletes practicing individual and collective sports (track and field,handball, rugby, soccer, volleyball) and whose behaviour was observed throughout a competitive year. The researchmethods used within our study were the literature review method, the observation method, the investigation method,the statistical-mathematical method. In order to highlight the relevance of education in the manifestation of fair play,we have used The Fair Play Questionnaire that had the purpose of measuring the way athletes think and act duringcompetitions and in social life. The questionnaire includes 28 items structured on two subscales of 14 items each:fair play in competitions and fair play in society.Results. Subscales may be used both separately (each subscale individually) and combined in a total score. Thehypothesis is confirmed for all the three dimensions. The ANOVA value obtained for fair play in competitions is F =3.525, significant for the threshold p 0.05 (p = 0.017), for fair play in society is F = 4.141, significant for thethreshold p 0.05 (p = 0.008), while for general fair play is F = 4.556, significant for the threshold p 0.05 (p =0.004) (Table 3). Consequently, there are statistically significant differences between the groups by the variable ofeducation level.Conclusions. The analysis conducted has confirmed that the level of education is important and that it influencesthe fair play behaviour of athletes both in competitions and in society.
