From the last decade of the twentieth century, professional football has become a transnational global business in which financial profits are as important as sports successes (1). Being a full occupational category, professional football relies on a diversity of stakeholders including among others players, clubs, (inter)national governing bodies, sponsors and sport ministries (1). Despite the ...

BACKGROUND Whilst the scientific understanding of mild traumatic brain injury sequelae has advanced, the consequences of neurological insults sustained during football play in the form of multiple concussions and heading remains unclear. METHOD To the authors' knowledge, this is the first longitudinal prospective study to follow-up a group of footballers and controls over time. Thirty-two eli...

OBJECTIVE To investigate use and awareness of lawful and unlawful substances by amateur footballers in Yaounde, Cameroon. METHODS A total of 1116 amateur footballers (1037 male and 79 female) out of 1500 contacted participated in this study. They were divided into three groups: elite players (n = 314); local players (n = 723); female players (n = 79). They answered a questionnaire of 30 items...

BACKGROUND This paper examines the occupational risk of concussion amongst professional and semi-professional footballers in Ireland during the 2014 League of Ireland season. As part of a broader nationally representative study examining occupational safety and health (OSH) awareness amongst professional footballers, this empirical quantitative study, utilising a convenience sample is the first...

OBJECTIVE To determine if baseline Sport Concussion Assessment Tool, third Edition (SCAT3) scores differ between athletes with and without disability. DESIGN Cross-sectional comparison of preseason baseline SCAT3 scores for a range of England international footballers. SETTING Team doctors and physiotherapists supporting England football teams recorded players' SCAT 3 baseline tests from Au...

BACKGROUND Mental disorders have become a topic of increasing interest in research due to their serious consequences for quality of life and functioning. OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to explore the relationship of level of education, employment status and working hours with symptoms of common mental disorders (distress, anxiety/depression, sleep disturbance, adverse alcohol beha...

BACKGROUND In common with elite athletes from other sport disciplines, severe or recurrent injuries in professional footballers are considered to be major physical and psychosocial stressors, which may predispose to mental health problems during and after their career. AIMS To determine the prevalence of mental health problems and psychosocial difficulties in current and former professional f...

OBJECTIVES To determine sweat rate (SwR) and fluid requirements for American footballers practicing in a hot, humid environment compared with cross country runners in the same conditions. METHODS Fifteen subjects, 10 footballers and five runners, participated. On the 4th and 8th day of preseason two a day practices, SwR during exercise was determined in both morning and afternoon practices/ru...

The objective of this study was to describe the characteristics of mortalities from 2007 to 2013 in active (during career) and recently retired (post career) professional footballers. An observational prospective study was conducted. From 2007, the World Footballers' Union (FIFPro) and its related national footballers' unions (more than 70 countries distributed across all continents) collected ...

BACKGROUND Knowledge of normal muscle characteristics is crucial in planning rehabilitation programmes for injured athletes. There is a high incidence of ankle and anterior tibial symptoms in football players, however little is known about the effect of limb dominance on the anterior tibial muscle group (ATMG). The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of limb dominance and sports-spec...