Abstract
IntroductionFootball is the most popular sport worldwide and results in a high frequency of injuries. So far, mainly injuries in professional football have been investigated, and the literature lacks data regarding detailed injury epidemiology and current prevention data in amateur football tournaments.Materials and methodsA prospective cohort study investigated an international amateur football tournament, the UEFA Regions’ Cup, which took place in 2019 in Germany. Injury epidemiology, current prevention strategies of the teams and the implementation of the UEFA concussion protocol were investigated in detail by means of standardized injury definitions and data samples for football (Fuller et al., Scand J Med Sci Sports 16:83–92, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2006.00528.x, 2006).Results138 player of 8 teams participated in this study, while 39 players were excluded. Overall injury incidence was 12.5 per 1000 h total football exposure, 43.5 per 1000 h for match exposure. No injuries were registered during training. Injury prevalence was 14.1% per player and 1.1 injuries per match were registered. The lower extremity was predominantly affected by injuries (71.4%) and the majority of injuries (78.6%) were non-severe injury types like contusions (50%) and sprains (18.2%). Two head injuries, one contusion and one skin lesion, were handled by the guidelines of the UEFA concussion protocol. 44.4% of the players indicated at least one previous injury before tournament, 45.3% of them during the last two football seasons before start of the tournament. Injury prevention performance was included in all participating teams during the tournament by warm up or training strategies (100%). During the warm-up program just 5 exercises of the FIFA 11 + program was detected by this investigation in participating teams to be done by more half of the teams. Running exercises were the most frequently performed exercises, while trunk muscle exercises were less represented (14.3%).ConclusionThis study presents for the first time epidemiological injury and prevention data of the UEFA Regions Cup. Injury incidence was higher compared to injury reports of regular seasons, but lower compared to other amateur football tournaments. Currently used prevention programs revealed trunk muscle exercises as often neglected.
Highlights
Football is the most popular sport worldwide and results in a high frequency of injuries
We investigated the warm-up program utilized by teams before official matches and compared it to the FIFA 11 + injury prevention program
Incidence rates of overall injury were calculated by dividing the number of events by the total match exposure time as well as the training exposure in 1000 player hours relating to Fuller et al [14]
Summary
Professional football (soccer) is one of the most popular types of sports worldwide [21], but the number of amateur players is even higher and includes millions of recreational players, participation is growing annually [10]. Most of the players participate at a recreational level, existing epidemiological injury surveys mainly analyse professional football Among these players, investigations for all types of competitions, such as seasonal injury studies or tournament research projects of international events, are available. The qualifying matches are held in two rounds and the teams contest for eight starting positions in the final event (https://www.uefa.com/regionscup/) This unique championship of amateur level football at international level gives the opportunity to investigate the incidence of injuries. The established UEFA guidelines for players, doctors and referees concerning the management of concussion were investigated for secondary injury prevention This prospective cohort study analysed the final round of the UEFA Regions’ Cup, an international tournament for amateur football players. All analyses were performed with IBM SPSS Statistics, version 26.0
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