Causes of injuries in professional football referees

The professional activity of a football referee consists of heavy loads and psychological pressure, which significantly affects his health. Unlike professional football players, referees monitor their health most of the time on their own, without having the opportunity to be under the control of sports doctors. During the research, we conducted a survey of 30 referees of the Premier League of Ukraine aged 27-45. Questions related to the occurrence and nature of injuries during various activities of a football referee were included in the questionnaire. It was found that the largest number of injuries of football referees of the Premier League of Ukraine is muscle strain that occurs during intensive work. Еhe highest number of muscle strain injuries 26.0 -1.8 occurs during the performance of the physical training test, which includes: the YO-YO test and the maximum running of 6 segments of 40 m. The number of received injuries related to problems joints, depending on sports activity, are: during training - 11.3 -0.5 injuries, during a match - 6.3 -0.9 and 8.7 -1.1 injuries - during testing. The largest number of dislocations, fractures and other injuries also occurs during training activities and is 3.1 -0.3 injuries and 2.2 -0.3 injuries, respectively. The age of the football referee significantly affects the number of sports injuries. Yes, referees after the age of 41 have a tendency to get muscle strains and joint inflammation. During the tests, referees get more injuries than during the game and training, which indicates that the physical training tests do not match the main motor activity.