Football Association Research Articles

LA NATURA PUBBLICISTICA DEGLI ATTI DELLA COVISOC. UNA QUESTIONE CHE RIAPRE LO SCENARIO IN TEMA DI GIUSTIZIA SPORTIVA?

The article analyses the sentence of the Administrative Court in Rome n. 3693/2023 which accepted a claim to show a document created by the Italian Football Association, which the access had essentially been denied by Commission for financial control and supervision of the Association. The paper focuses on the nature of the sport bodies and on the nature of the acts of the Commission for financial control, which are established by the law n. 91/1981. The article also highlights the applicability of the preliminary issue ruled by art. 3 of law n. 280/2003 and investigate on the rights to access to documents gave by the law n. 241/1990. The author shows the genesis and metamorphosis of these three institutions in order to highlight some shortcomings of the sport courts, and to highlight the risks of new interferences by the State if something will be not changed by the sport system.

DOPING CONTROL IN MALE SOCCER PLAYERS IN BRAZIL: 10 YEARS OF FOLLOW-UP.

To understand the Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) that have occurred in Brazilian soccer in a recent 10-year period, comparing them to international data, to know the Brazilian profile. A review of the AAR in the Doping Control Commission database of the Brazilian Football Association from 2008 to 2017. The AAR in professional male soccer players between 2008 and 2017 were considered. The sample selected in this research was composed of 40,092 doping tests, with 113 AAR, identified in 18 different competitions (0.28%) in the professional category, in Brazilian national and state competitions between 2008 and 2017, flagged in doping control exams through urine samples. Stimulants were detected most frequently (31.0%), followed by glucocorticoids (21.2%), diuretics, and masking agents (19.5%). The Brazilian Championship series did not show a relationship with any of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) groups of substances. Series A showed 0.07% of AAR, Series B 0.21%, Series C 0.75% and Series D 1.49. The rate of AAR in Brazilian soccer was 0.28%, lower than the average for all soccer worldwide, and shows similar percentages among field positions. Stimulants were the most prevalent drugs. The national elite soccer competitions showed significantly fewer cases than the lower divisions. Level of Evidence II; Retrospective Study.

The influence of meteorological factors on the technical performance of football teams during matches.

This study explored the impact of the meteorological factors air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed on teams' technical performance during the Union of European Football Associations Champions League (UCL). Technical match statistics were collected for five seasons (2016/2017-2020/2021). Thirty-one technical actions and events were categorized into three groups (goal scoring, offense, and defence). Meteorological data were collected from the official UEFA website (air temperature (°C): 11.59 ± 6.87, relative humidity (%): 71.40 ± 17.82, wind speed (km/h): 11.52 ± 7.02). LASSO regression analysis was employed to identify important indicators that affect match outcomes, while separate Poisson regression models were used in generalized linear modelling to determine the effects of meteorological factors on key technical performance indicators. The results revealed that offensive variables were instrumental in distinguishing match outcomes (winning, drawing, and losing), with meteorological factors significantly influencing these variables. Notably, "shot from counter attack" was the most significantly affected variable, being exclusively influenced by air temperature (OR = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.30 to 0.98). Two technical indicators, "dribbles won" and "shots from the 6-yard box," were both significantly influenced by two meteorological factors. "Cards per foul," an understudied variable, displayed a close association with all the three meteorological factors. These findings offer valuable insights for coaches and analysts in comprehending the influence of meteorological conditions on crucial technical variables during the performance evaluation of teams. Moreover, they provide valuable information to help coaches devise appropriate tactics for players before or during a match, considering the potential changes in meteorological conditions.

Advocating the Use of Informal Conversations as a Qualitative Method at Live Events

Informal conversations have been used in qualitative research for over 100 years. Whilst originally identified as a minor part of ethnographic study, scholarly literature in the 2020s has aimed to promote a greater use of the informal conversation method in qualitative research. In agreement with Swain and King (2022), informal conversations create a greater ease of communication and often produce more naturalistic data than other forms such as interviews. Using experiences from two qualitative studies at a range of multi-purpose arenas in the UK and Europe and English association football stadia, this article explores the use of informal conversations as a research method at live events. It provides strategies and guidance regarding how to successfully implement this method when collecting data; explains how informal conversations can be recorded effectively; and outlines how beneficial they are in producing valid and authentic data. The article also explores the ethical challenges that are faced when conducting informal conversations in live event spaces in terms of ethics, validity, and reliability.

Improvements in Primary Emergency Care Understanding during Matches for Football Coaches and Referees in East Java

Improper initial management of emergency conditions during soccer matches causes long-term morbidity, affects the athlete’s future performance, and is sometimes life-threatening. Soccer coaches and referees can be laypeople who give first aid and understand when to remove the athlete from the field of play. This program aims to improve the emergency management knowledge of the coaches and referees in East Java. This program was conducted in September 2022 – January 2023. All referees, assistant referees, and coaches of the Football Association of Indonesia region East Java who attended this training were included. The emergency management training was presented material using video, PowerPoint media, and hands-on mannequins. Before and after the training, participants were given some questions to assess their level of knowledge, with a minimum passing score was 75. Comparative tests (Wilcoxon signed rank, McNemar, and Chi-square test) were used to analyze the data. A hundred and twenty-eight (128) participants were included in this program. The median of the pre-and post-test scores were 62.5 and 87.5. There was a significant difference between pre-and post-test scores (p < 0.001). There was no significant difference between coaches and referee groups in pre-test scores (p = 0.743). However, in the post-test score, the coach group had a significantly higher number of participants who did not pass than the referee group (29.6% vs. 10.8%, p = 0.007). This program improved the emergency knowledge during matches of the coaches and referees to prevent adding the severity of injuries of the soccer athlete.

Quality Criteria for Studies Assessing the Acute Effects of Heading: Results from a UEFA Expert Panel.

There is increasing concern regarding the effects of heading in football on brain health including cognitive, behavioural and neuromotor function, with research suggesting an association between repeated ball-head impacts and neurodegenerative disease. While longitudinal studies to determine the long-term consequences of heading are challenging, there have been short-term 'acute' studies conducted, with some studies lacking appropriate methodology to ensure valid results. The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)established a panel of experts to determine methodological recommendations for the conduct of studies that explore the acute effects of heading (defined as a single session of heading conducted either in a laboratory setting or following match play or a training session). The aim of this panel was to create quality criteria for acute heading studies that will form part of the eligibility assessment when applying for UEFAresearch funding (although the criteria can be applied to the conduct of acute heading research more widely). This process was deemed necessary to counter studies with poor methodological quality that used heading trials that did not accurately represent player exposure to ball-head impacts through football practice and match play (such as small sample sizes, unrealistically high heading exposure, and a lack of consideration of confounding variables). The panel identified core design decisions that authors should consider when designing and conducting acute heading research, with key methodological requirements for each domain pertaining to participants, heading trials, confounding variables, statistics and dependent/target variables and their measurement. After two rounds of reviews, the final list of quality criteria was agreed by the panel and will be applied to the next round of UEFAgrant applications.

Video expert assessment of high quality video for Video Assistant Referee (VAR): A comparative study

The International Football Association Board decided to introduce Video Assistant Referee (VAR) in 2018. This led to the need to develop methods for quality control of the VAR-systems. This article focuses on the important aspect to evaluate the video quality. Video Quality assessment has matured in the sense that there are standardized, commercial products and established open-source solutions to measure it with objective methods. Previous research has primarily focused on the end-user quality assessment. How to assess the video in the contribution phase of the chain is less studied. The novelties of this study are two-fold: 1) The user study is specifically targeting video experts i.e., to assess the perceived quality of video professionals working with video production. 2) Six video quality models have been independently benchmarked against the user data and evaluated to show which of the models could provide the best predictions of perceived quality. The independent evaluation is important to get unbiased results as shown by the Video Quality Experts Group. An experiment was performed involving 25 video experts in which they rated the perceived quality. The video formats tested were High-Definition TV both progressive and interlaced as well as a quarters size format that was scaled down half the size in both width and height. The videos were encoded with both H.264 and Motion JPEG for the full size but only H.264 for the quarter size. Bitrates ranged from 80 Mbit/s down to 10 Mbit/s. We could see that for H.264 that the quality was overall very good but dropped somewhat for 10 Mbit/s. For Motion JPEG the quality dropped over the whole range. For the interlaced format the degradation that was based on a simple deinterlacing method did receive overall low ratings. For the quarter size three different scaling algorithms were evaluated. Lanczos performed the best and Bilinear the worst. The performance of six different video quality models were evaluated for 1080p and 1080i. The Video Quality Metric for Variable Frame Delay had the best performance for both formats, followed by Video Multimethod Assessment Fusion method and the Video Quality Metric General model.

Coping profiles of adolescent football players and association with interpersonal coping: Do emotional competence and psychological need satisfaction matter?

Using a person-centered approach, the present study aimed to investigate the coping profiles of adolescent football players involved in elite football training centers. The purposes were to (1) identify coping profiles based on the reported use of multiple coping strategies in response to competitive stress, (2) explore whether emotional competencies and psychological need satisfaction would predict coping profile membership, and (3) examine the extent to which coping profiles were differently associated with individual and team perceived stress, interpersonal coping, and subjective team performance, as well as demographic characteristics. A sample of 416 young French football players (males = 282; females = 134; Mage = 16.2; SDage = 1.2) from 12 elite football training centers participated in this study. Latent profile analysis results yielded three coping profiles allowing players to be grouped according to their preferences for a combined use of certain strategies (i.e., low copers, high disengaged copers, and high task copers). Results provided further insight into each coping profile membership by indicating the role played by intrapersonal emotional competence and psychological need satisfaction. Finally, differences between coping profiles have been shown in terms of individual perceived stress intensity, interpersonal coping approach, and gender. These findings provide a deeper understanding of adaptive coping profiles within a population of adolescent football players involved in elite training centers. Implications for developing and tailoring psychoeducational interventions for adolescent football players exhibiting a maladaptive coping profile (i.e., disengagement-oriented coping profile) are considered.

Political economy and football in new market: the case of the Chinese Super League

As the most popular sport in the world, football (soccer) has long been closely related to politics and the economy. In China, significant growth and changes in economy and power impacted the development of the football market and the Chinese Super League (CSL) as a new product. By adopting the theoretical framework of Giulianotti’s ‘new political economy of football’, this article explores the CSL’s brief history, the policies and the strategies of football development in China and analyses the relationship between the CSL and its political economy context. The conclusion of this study indicates that the development of the CSL was largely impacted by its political economy environment, including the state and local government, the Chinese Football Association (CFA), the media, private companies, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The politics and public administration nexus in the practice of football administration in Zimbabwe

The topical focus of the paper is to examine how national sports administration reflects the interconnectedness of politics and public administration in Zimbabwe. To achieve this aim, the paper examines the patron-client relationship between the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) and the ruling political party, the Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). The paper demonstrates how the interference of ZANU-PF in the management of the ZIFA has soiled the governance and formal administration of the national football administration body. The study reveals that due to constant political manipulation, ZIFA has been marred by allegations of corruption and maladministration, sexual harassment and the marginalization of women and the subsequent suspension by the global football governing body, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) in February 2022. The paper argues that these challenges are not unique to football administration but are reflective of the broader public administration culture in Zimbabwe, which is entangled with partisan politics. This entanglement has over the years expressed itself through transactional relationships, whereby the ruling ZANU-PF seeks to control football administration for its political and hegemonic purposes. Some individuals have used their political links with ZANU-PF as political capital to both legitimize and entrench their football administration careers. This implies that ZIFA has morphed into a subsidiary of the ruling political establishment, in the process compromising its independence as a football governing and regulatory body. Football administration is therefore a useful lens that can help us understand and theorize on the impact of politics in public administration. Methodologically, the paper utilizes a qualitative research design which included in-depth interviews and document analysis with the intent to capture and express in detail the nexus of politics and football administration in Zimbabwe.

Developing a ‘clarity of mind’: Exploring a behaviour-based approach to mental toughness development in international youth football

Mentally tough behaviors (MTbs) entail verbal or physical acts that allow athletes to engage their capacity to produce consistently high performances under pressure. However, researchers of mental toughness (MT) have typically focused on the characteristics that make an athlete mentally tough, rather than how these characteristics are developed through learning to, and reflecting on, the display of MTbs. Consequently, we explored the athlete MT development process within youth international football. Collaborating with a Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) National Association, age-group international players (n = 6), coaches (n = 6), support staff (n = 7), and parents (n = 6) were interviewed regarding MTbs, the specific contexts (e.g., training) that require MTbs, and how key personnel (e.g., coaches, parents, teammates) might help develop players’ MTbs in international youth football. Using thematic analysis, we found MT development to be a relational, multidimensional process, where players transacted with individuals (e.g., coaches) in their environment. These individuals’ behaviors (e.g., autonomy-supportive) influenced players’ propensity to engage in and reflect on contextually relevant MTbs, leading to MT understanding, development, and maintenance. We suggest organizations develop a common understanding of the MT development process and educate all relevant stakeholders regarding their role in supporting athletes to develop the capacity to perform consistently under pressure. Lay summary: We explored key stakeholders’ perceptions of mental toughness (MT) development in international youth football. We found players’ MT is developed via key relationships, with players encountering opportunities to display this capacity via mentally tough behaviors (MTbs). Players must reflect upon their display of MTbs to further develop and maintain MT.

This time with feeling: In-play sports betting as a vehicle for emotion regulation.

The purpose of this research was to assess factors (i.e., emotion regulation, impulsivity) that motivate in-play sports betting. Specifically, we examined whether individuals report increased excitement after placing an in-play bet and whether trait negative and positive urgency moderate the effect of emotion regulation motives on in-play betting frequency. Three cross-sectional studies were conducted, each following a major sporting event: Superbowl LVI (56) (Study 1), March Madness Final (Study 2), and Union of European Football Associations Champions League Final (Study 3). Participants were U.S. (NStudy 1 = 111; NStudy 2 = 121) and U.K. (NStudy 3 = 239) residents who reported placing at least one in-play bet during the respective sporting events. Participants completed self-report measures of excitement, emotion regulation motives, in-play betting frequency, problem gambling, and trait affective impulsivity. Data from the three studies were pooled to conduct an integrative data analysis (IDA). Participants reported increased excitement after placing an in-play bet (p < .001). In bivariate analyses, greater emotion regulation motives were associated with greater in-play betting frequency (p < .05). In moderation analyses, emotion regulation motives interacted with trait negative (p < .001) and positive urgency (p < .001) to predict in-play betting frequency, such that the bivariate effects were amplified among those higher (relative to lower) in trait affective impulsivity. In-play sports betting is an exciting activity that people who gamble may engage in to regulate their emotions. These effects are amplified in those with high trait affective impulsivity. Responsible gambling tools such as mandatory play breaks may discourage the continuation of impulsive betting episodes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Sports selection and game orientation of footballers in Poland

The Republic of Poland is one of the largest countries in the central-eastern part of Europe. Poland, as a major European football country, has created a fairly powerful and flexible system of specialized training and sports training for players of various roles. The presence of the highest professional football division – "Ekstraklasa", whose clubs represent Poland on the international stage in competitions for European cups, as well as three semi-professional football leagues requires a significant number of high-quality players, coaches, specialists involved in the development of the country's football industry.&#x0D; Over the past decade and a half, Poland has nurtured several generations of world-class players. Veterans of the Polish national football team have reached the highest level of skill and achievement. First of all, we are talking about Robert Lewandowski and their partners from Kadra, as the main football team of Poland is called. But their talent was not given from the sky, and the clubs of the Polish "Ekstraklasa" continue to release many quality players from their academies into the big football world, which implies a systematic, systematic and deeply thought-out development of football youth to the smallest detail.&#x0D; Therefore, the recent successes of Polish football, and, in particular, the entry of the national team into the final part of the 2020 European Championship (the Poles have not missed the continental championships since 2008) are not accidental. The latter factor suggests that when the time comes for a generational change in the Polish national team, even if there is no player in the team who can be compared in skill level with Robert Lewandowski, the overall quality of the players will undoubtedly steadily increase thanks to the thoughtful and consolidated actions of the functionaries of the national football association, coaches, football specialists.

Improving public safety in events of mass gathering: The 2022 Kanjuruhan Stadium Disaster in Indonesia

AbstractThe Kanjuruhan tragedy has caused tremendous sorrow for Indonesia and its football history. The incident happened during the match between the Arema and Persebaya football teams that was followed by a chaotic stampede due to supporters’ anarchy. The incident caused 135 deaths due to a stampede in the chaotic stadium. However, it has also brought into the limelight several violations and depravity of safety measures that have been neglected by the Indonesian officials and its football association. Despite being banned by FIFA's Safety and Security Regulations, the use of crowd‐control gas is hypothesized as one of the key driving factors for the stampede. There were also violations of the evacuation plan with overloaded stadium capacity, lack of safety protocol, and no regard for the disaster management command chain needed in such a situation. Inappropriate security plans, lack of safety officers, lack of a contingency plan in the event of a stampede, and lack of appropriate safe infrastructure contributed to the severity of this incident. We discuss the incident with the possible causes and notable issues in the management of mass gatherings, as well as the might‐be solution and precaution for all parties involved, from the evaluation of the use of crowd‐control gas, reassessment of safety protocol, and infrastructure to the appropriate response for stampede or any similar situations. The Kanjuruhan tragedy is heart‐wrenching, with various issues involved, showing the lack of regulations by the Indonesian government and its football association. However, it might also be an opportunity to learn and inspect all parties to achieve a peaceful and safe football in Indonesia.

Enforced Ostracism? Analysis of the International Sports Organizations’ Reactions to the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine

The Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 triggered widespread reactions. The global call for the isolation of Russia and its collaborator Belarus has also involved the world of sport, leading to the expulsion of Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competitions. The decisions leading to the expulsion were analyzed from the perspective of their factors, timing, and the international sports organizations’ (ISOs) traditional approach to mixing sport and politics. During these developments, various stakeholders have been exerting pressure on the ISOs by voicing their expectations towards sanctioning Russia and even using the threat of boycott. Multiple Streams Framework has been employed in an attempt to understand the decision-making processes of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), demonstrating that external pressure has played the overriding role in the process leading to the isolation of Russia and Belarus in international sport, marking the continuation of the recent evolution of ISOs’ approach to the interconnection between politics and sport.

Protection rights for football supporters: learning from the tragedy at the Kanjuruhan Stadium in Indonesia

PurposeFootball supporters have safety and security guarantees, but protection rights abuses in the Kanjuruhan Indonesia stadium tragedy. This study aims to create a design regulation to protect the protection rights of football supporters in the world.Design/methodology/approachThis is a socio-legal study. The law, cases and conceptual methods are the research methodologies. The process of collecting data uses a literature review. The gathered facts and information are next examined both qualitatively and descriptively.FindingsThe tragedy that occurred at the Kanjuruhan Stadium is the worst tragedy of Indonesian football. The key factor behind the tragedy was the mechanism for securing football matches regulated in the acts and regulations in Indonesia, which were out of sync and contrary to Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) regulations. The Indonesian National Police Regulation (Perkapolri) permits the use of firearms, tear gas and force, whereas this is actually prohibited by the FIFA Stadium Safety and Security Regulation (FSSSR). In this tragedy, protection rights abuses occurred. Then, the Indonesian Sport Act (ISA) 2022 does not yet regulate crucial matters, especially safety and security in sports competitions to protect players, referees, spectators/supporters and other match organizers.Research limitations/implicationsThis study examines various regulations relating to sports, especially football matches with a focus on studies in Indonesia.Practical implicationsThe results of this research help realize protection rights for football supporters and create designs regulation to protect protection rights for football supporters worldwide.Social implicationsThe design regulation recommended in this study is useful for preventing disasters in football and protecting football supporters, players, referees and parties in matches from acts of violence.Originality/valueLearning from the Kanjuruhan tragedy, to prevent this from happening again, the adoption of the FSSSR into Indonesian legislation, created the Safety of Sports Grounds Act and the establishment of the Indonesian Football Policing Unit are recommendations that need to be considered.

Generations, events, and social movement legacies: Unpacking social change in English football (1980-2023).

This article critically employs the case of association football in England, from 1980 to 2023, as a social movement timescape, to examine the political consciousness and long-term mobilisations of a generation of football supporter activists, and their capacity to influence politics, and respond to new, emerging, critical junctures, through networks of trust and shared memories of historical events. This is of crucial importance to sociology because it reveals the tensions between what are considered legitimate and illegitimate social practices which characterise contemporary society's moral economy. Focusing on temporal contestations over regulation, policing, governance and cultural rituals, the article deconstructs the role of generations in social movements, and critically synthesises relational-temporal sociology and classic and contemporary work on the sociology of generations, to show how legacy operates as a multifaceted maturing concept of power and time. In English football's neoliberal timescape, the supporters' movement has reached a critical juncture; the future will require a new generation of activists, to negotiate, resist and contest the new hegemonic politics of social control and supporter engagement.

Club coefficients in the UEFA Champions League: Time for shift to an Elo-based formula

ABSTRACT One of the most popular club football tournaments, the UEFA Champions League, will see a fundamental reform from the 2024/25 season: the traditional group stage will be replaced by one league where each of the 36 teams plays eight matches. To guarantee that the opponents of the clubs are of the same strength in the new design, it is crucial to forecast the performance of the teams before the tournament as well as possible. This paper investigates whether the currently used rating of the teams, the UEFA club coefficient, can be improved by taking the games played in the national leagues into account. According to our logistic regression models, a variant of the Elo method provides a higher accuracy in terms of explanatory power in the Champions League matches. The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is encouraged to follow the example of the FIFA World Ranking and reform the calculation of the club coefficients in order to avoid unbalanced schedules in the novel tournament format of the Champions League.

Authors’ reply to the Discussion of ‘Flexible marked spatio-temporal point processes with applications to event sequences from association football’

Authors’ reply to the Discussion of ‘Flexible marked spatio-temporal point processes with applications to event sequences from association football’

College Football Television and Attendance: The Problem With Selection Bias

Abstract: Television coverage’s impact on college football attendance is a topic of debate. Between 2005 and 2019, annual growth in athletic department revenues for Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools from media rights, postseason football, and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) conference distributions far exceeded revenue growth in ticket sales revenue. This study re-evaluates the substitution or complementarity of television coverage and stadium attendance in college football with updated data while controlling for selection bias through endogenous treatment regression. Although initial results reveal a positive correlation between television coverage and attendance, national coverage and attendance appear to be substitutes after controlling for selection bias. That said, from an attendance maximizing perspective, national coverage is preferable to lower-tiered coverage if a game is to be televised.