Science & medicine in football最新文献

{"title":"Professional male English footballers of the 20th century had lower death rates than the general population.","authors":"Maxime Sellers, John W Orchard, Jessica J Orchard, Phil Batty","doi":"10.1080/24733938.2025.2533791","DOIUrl":"10.1080/24733938.2025.2533791","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Elite athlete cohorts in most sports outlive the general population. We aimed to assess the standardised mortality ratios (SMR) of male professional footballers in England from the 20th Century compared to the general population in England. We included players born between 1900-1972 who had played for the best performing 25 clubs in the English Football League in the 20th Century. We chose these years of birth meaning debut after the First World War (when football records became more reliable) and debut before the start of the Premier League (when teams became composed of a high number of non-British players). We used Wikidata as our primary source of publicly available data for players in our chosen cohort, supplemented by additional databases. Expected deaths (between 1963-2022) were calculated using English deaths by year and age from the Human Mortality Database and The Office of National Statistics. We identified 7620 eligible players from the 25 clubs as our cohort. By the end of 2022, 4049 players were still alive and 3571 had died. Expected number of deaths was 4242. The SMR for English professional footballers was 0.84 (95% confidence interval 0.81-0.88). We conclude that male professional footballers of the 20th Century had lower mortality rates than the age-matched general male population in England.</p>","PeriodicalId":74767,"journal":{"name":"Science & medicine in football","volume":" ","pages":"226-235"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144661240","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Perspectives on data analytics for gaining a competitive advantage in football: harnessing data for decision support.","authors":"Anne Hecksteden, Matthias Kempe, Julian Berger","doi":"10.1080/24733938.2025.2517056","DOIUrl":"10.1080/24733938.2025.2517056","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this issue, Olthof and Davis highlight the potential of computational methods for gaining a competitive advantage in football and call for a closer collaboration between football and data science experts to fully leverage these opportunities. While we agree in principle with both aspects, we would like to amend some considerations that may contribute nuances to this perspective.Sustained success in a competitive environment results from a stream of good, well-informed decisions. Computational methods may support decision making in football by alleviating information overload, time constraints, unintended variation, and human biases. The advantages for data management and automated feature extraction are beyond doubt. However, as also emphasized by Olthof and Davis, the critical part of decision making is a prediction task: Forecasting the potential outcome of the available options and choosing between options based on limited amounts of information. Over the last two decades, the use of large amounts of data for the construction of sophisticated metrics and predictive models has gained widespread use in elite football. However, high-dimensional, data-driven algorithms don't necessarily provide the most accurate and helpful predictions. Rather, deliberately sparse, interpretable models that leverage data-driven modelling as well as domain expertise have repeatedly shown to have competitive predictive performance while at the same time avoiding the downsides of black-box algorithms for decision support. We illustrate this 'less-can-be-more' effect with two worked examples based on real-world data. Finally, predictability of an outcome can be low even in principle, putting hard limits to predictive accuracy regardless of modelling strategy.</p>","PeriodicalId":74767,"journal":{"name":"Science & medicine in football","volume":" ","pages":"249-257"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144251227","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Correction.","authors":"","doi":"10.1080/24733938.2026.2635863","DOIUrl":"10.1080/24733938.2026.2635863","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":74767,"journal":{"name":"Science & medicine in football","volume":" ","pages":"iii"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147313276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A systematic review of concussion education, knowledge, and attitudes in football.","authors":"Ryan Baker, Bert Bond, Gareth Irwin, Sean Connelly, Genevieve Williams","doi":"10.1080/24733938.2025.2488521","DOIUrl":"10.1080/24733938.2025.2488521","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Detecting concussion during football games is difficult due to the complexity of the condition. Medical staff may only enter the field to assess players when the injury is recognised by the referee. With no temporary concussion substitutions available, pitch-side testing often depends on medics recognising, or players self-reporting, symptoms. The aim of this review is to provide a summary of the literature examining the concussion education, knowledge and attitudes of players, coaches, medics, and officials in association football. A literature search based on PRISMA guidelines was conducted using PubMed, SPORTDiscus and Web of Science up to 12 January 2024. Papers were ineligible if the outcome of the survey or questionnaire was concussion incidence or over 50% of participants did not play football. A total of 21 studies were included. Of these studies 14 evaluated concussion education,11 evaluated concussion knowledge and 14 evaluated attitudes towards concussion. Study quality was assessed using the appropriate Joanna Briggs Critical Appraisal Tool. Results show that participants who have previously undergone concussion education have greater concussion knowledge. However, concussion attitudes do not appear to improve with increased concussion knowledge. Players are still likely to continue playing while injured in important games. Coaches, and officials have safer attitudes towards concussion than players. Consistency in participant groups and methods used to test knowledge and attitudes was low. All papers included suffer from medium to high risks of bias, therefore the strength of evidence is weak. Published research examining concussion knowledge, attitudes and education in football is limited.</p>","PeriodicalId":74767,"journal":{"name":"Science & medicine in football","volume":" ","pages":"141-160"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144058578","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Results of a cardiac screening program in elite football players in New Zealand.","authors":"Angus J Davis, Belinda Gray, Tim Driscoll, John W Orchard, Bruce Hamilton, Robert N Doughty, Mark Fulcher, Jessica J Orchard","doi":"10.1080/24733938.2025.2533790","DOIUrl":"10.1080/24733938.2025.2533790","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cardiac screening of elite footballers for conditions associated with sudden cardiac arrest/death (SCA/D) is a requirement of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). This study aimed to report the findings, cardiac diagnoses, and outcomes from the New Zealand Football (NZF) screening program for FIFA tournaments since 2012. Footballers were screened with a personal/family history, physical examination, resting 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) and transthoracic echocardiogram. An audit (March 2024) reviewed screening records, comprising ECGs, echocardiograms, demographic data, follow-up testing, and diagnoses. A footballer was included if their screening episode included an ECG trace and an echocardiogram (with a report in English) and if there were sufficient details about the screening outcome. Rare results were reported as <5 to protect anonymity. If a footballer had multiple screenings, only the first was included. One hundred and forty-seven footballers (60% female, mean age 19.2 ± 3.7 years) were included. There were <5 diagnoses of conditions associated with SCA/D. No footballer retired for cardiac reasons and there were no incidents of SCA/D during the audit period. 4.8% of ECGs were abnormal; however, no patient was subsequently identified to have underlying structural heart disease on echocardiography. In screening echocardiograms, females had significantly lower indexed left ventricular end-systolic and diastolic volumes compared to males. The ECG and echocardiographic findings in this screening cohort were similar to those of other football populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":74767,"journal":{"name":"Science & medicine in football","volume":" ","pages":"258-264"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144661241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Perspectives on data analytics for gaining a competitive advantage in football: computational approaches to tactics.","authors":"Sigrid Olthof, Jesse Davis","doi":"10.1080/24733938.2025.2533784","DOIUrl":"10.1080/24733938.2025.2533784","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The role of data-driven analyses is becoming more prominent in football. These have the potential to impact decision-making processes for team performance and player recruitment. Research in this area makes use of large datasets consisting of event and tracking data from multiple teams, leagues and seasons. A well-known computational solution is the Expected Goal model for post-match analysis and operational decision-making.Despite a shared research interest in football tactics, computational research in football is somewhat disconnected from the sports science community. We believe that there is much to gain from a closer collaboration between these disparate communities. To this end, the present commentary has three goals. First, we want to synthesize the historical computational work in areas such as evaluating tactics, predicting player and team success, and modeling players' movements. This work has largely been published in technical computational venues, and hence we hope to provide an access point for those interested in learning about this area. Second, we will highlight some emerging topics, such as automating parts of match analysis and analyzing decision-making. These are topics that require an in-depth collaboration with domain experts and therefore would benefit from a tighter integration among these communities. Third, we would like to discuss some advice and initiatives that we hope will be helpful in strengthening the ties between these communities.</p>","PeriodicalId":74767,"journal":{"name":"Science & medicine in football","volume":" ","pages":"236-248"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144676732","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Barriers and enablers to implementing the UEFA Consensus Statement on Nutrition: insights from sport nutrition practitioners in the English Premier League.","authors":"Nessan Costello, Stephanie Roe, Susan H Backhouse, Meghan Rowenna Noelle Bentley","doi":"10.1080/24733938.2025.2517055","DOIUrl":"10.1080/24733938.2025.2517055","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Despite the importance of evidence-based nutrition in elite football, Premier League players often exhibit sub-optimal dietary behaviours, highlighting the need for improved guideline implementation.</p><p><strong>Purpose: </strong>This study used the COM-B model and Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to explore sport nutritionists' perceived barriers and enablers to applying the UEFA Consensus Statement on Nutrition.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>Twelve lead sport nutritionists from English Premier League clubs took part in semi-structured interviews (1 hour ± 44 mins). The interviews were structured using the COM-B and TDF and analysed thematically.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Six key themes were identified, representing six barriers and two enablers, encompassing all three components of the COM-B model and seven TDF domains. <i>Psychological capability</i> barriers included challenges in changing players' dietary behaviours. <i>Reflective motivation</i> was hindered by doubts regarding the scientific basis of carbohydrate and body composition guidelines, alongside concerns over players' ability to practically adhere to carbohydrate recommendations. <i>Physical and social opportunity</i> barriers involved restricted time and support for ongoing personal and professional development. Practitioners desired greater autonomy over the nutrition service, which was either enabled or constrained by the club' social environment. As an enabler, female practitioners' strong interpersonal skills (<i>psychological capability</i>) supported implementation; however, they also faced gender-related challenges navigating male predominate environments, making the <i>social opportunity</i> for implementation more complex.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Implementing nutrition guidelines in elite football is challenging. Overcoming barriers-by boosting practitioner confidence, belief in guidelines, professional development support, and autonomy-is key to improving uptake of UEFA recommendations and enhancing player dietary adherence in the English Premier League.</p>","PeriodicalId":74767,"journal":{"name":"Science & medicine in football","volume":" ","pages":"189-202"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144328042","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A checklist for appraising the reporting and methodological quality of menstrual cycle (ARMQ-MC) phase-based research in sport science.","authors":"Kirsty Jayne Elliott-Sale, Anne Hecksteden, Carolina Franco Wilke, Katrine Okholm Kryger, Sophia Nimphius","doi":"10.1080/24733938.2026.2629266","DOIUrl":"10.1080/24733938.2026.2629266","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":74767,"journal":{"name":"Science & medicine in football","volume":" ","pages":"133-140"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146183751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Less than 4% of participants in studies of carbohydrate-based fuelling strategies for soccer performance have been female: results from an audit of her representation.","authors":"Laura McManus, Vinicius S Faria, Michael Scriney, Brendan Egan","doi":"10.1080/24733938.2025.2501809","DOIUrl":"10.1080/24733938.2025.2501809","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Women's soccer has increased markedly in popularity and professionalisation in recent years. Achieving adequate carbohydrate (CHO) availability before and during performance is often advised as a key priority for players. The aim of this study was to audit the literature that informs the current CHO-based guidelines for soccer performance and to assess the extent of evidence supporting their application to female players. Using an established protocol for auditing the published literature, seven databases were searched for research investigating the effects of acute CHO-based fuelling strategies before or during soccer performance. A total of 43 studies met the inclusion criteria. There were a total of 542 participants, of which 3.7% were female (<i>n</i> = 20 individuals) and 96.3% were male (<i>n</i> = 522 individuals). The majority of the studies were designed to examine the effects of CHO intake during soccer (<i>n</i> = 31; 72.1%), with the remaining studies employing pre-exercise CHO intake (<i>n</i> = 5; 11.6%) or CHO loading (<i>n</i> = 7; 16.3%) protocols. Most studies involved male-only cohorts (<i>n</i> = 41; 95.3%), while female-only (<i>n</i> = 1; 2.3%) and mixed-sex cohorts (<i>n</i> = 1; 2.3%) were less prevalent. Of the two studies that included females, neither provided any information around categorisation or control of menstrual cycle status. The current guidelines on acute CHO-based fuelling strategies for soccer are not informed by an adequate evidence base when applied to female players. Given the potential for between-sex differences in physiology and metabolism, the lack of female-specific research means that it is presently unknown whether the current guidelines on CHO-based fuelling strategies for soccer are optimal for female players.</p>","PeriodicalId":74767,"journal":{"name":"Science & medicine in football","volume":" ","pages":"171-182"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144045632","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"'Measuring' methodological artefacts - thinking critically about surveys via knowledge of 'biobanding'.","authors":"Matthew P Shaw, Christoffer W Irgens, Eskil Børnes, Vetle S Skogseth, Christopher R Matthews","doi":"10.1080/24733938.2025.2492628","DOIUrl":"10.1080/24733938.2025.2492628","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Surveys can efficiently generate big datasets, but they can misrepresent participants' understandings. Our article discusses the potential for surveys to produce 'methodological artifacts' when measuring complex phenomena, via a project exploring parents' understandings of biobanding in youth sport. Although 99.5% of survey respondents (<i>n</i> = 389) indicated that they understood biobanding, follow-up interviews with 11 participants revealed this to be spurious data. This contrast between survey and interview responses highlights the limitations of surveys in capturing nuanced understandings. We argue that this misalignment between the object of study and the chosen method results in findings are 'methodological artifacts' rather than reasonable representations of social life. As such, the study demonstrates how seemingly simple survey questions about biobanding were actually attempting to tap into the complex processes of human knowledge production. Around this finding, we build an accessible and practical discussion of research philosophy that leads us to caution against developing knowledge claims based on 'wonky' epistemological foundations. And we encourage colleagues to carefully consider how their chosen methods might usually frame but also misrepresent, or unduly distort phenomena under investigation. We conclude by calling for deeper reflection on methodological choices, particularly when research is guided by the constraints of academic structures rather than scientific principles.</p>","PeriodicalId":74767,"journal":{"name":"Science & medicine in football","volume":" ","pages":"183-188"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144061302","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}