New Publications

Riling Obertinca: "Injury prevention in youth football (soccer): a comprehensive description of the development process of the ‘FUNBALL’ programme" (klick)

Abstract: Many football injury prevention programmes (IPPs) have been developed to target various injuries and populations. There was no specific IPP for youth players in place before. However, several existing IPPs designed for adults were also assessed in the youth population. All the existing ones face the challenge of long-term adherence even though efficacy has been demonstrated for many weeks to seasons. The main barriers to a successful long-term implementation of IPPs are time constraints and the lack of attractiveness for the players as they do not contain football-specific and motivating exercises. Increasing its attractiveness was the main aspect of designing the programme. To achieve this, a new approach was used. The ‘FUNBALL’ programme includes competitive, pair-based exercises and frequent ball use. It offers more flexibility as there is a choice between two different exercises for each category. It was developed through close collaboration between the research community, closely involved in real-life football, and the end-users. Tailoring IPPs to the preferences of end-users could mean a significant advancement on long-term adherence compared with previous programmes. However, further research is needed to assess this assumption.

 

Florian Egger: Emergency response planning for sudden cardiac arrest in amateur football clubs in Germany (federal state Saarland) (klick).

 

 

International PhD programmed - Science and Health in Football - Call for applications!

The international doctoral program Science and Health in Football is hosted by the Institute of Sports and Preventive Medicine at Saarland University, Saarbruecken (Germany). Close collaborations are established with the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg, the University of Technology in Sydney (Australia), Edith-Cowan University in Perth (Australia), the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre (Norway) and the University of Basle (Switzerland). The University of Technology Sydney and Saarland University further agreed on a shared PhD program offering the possibility for a double degree from both Universities. The progam aims at improving the scientific approach to football, in particular at evaluating its potential health benefits and at further developing training standards and performance diagnosis for elite football players. 

Although head injuries (in particular concussions) and their management have become a major topic in sports medicine research over the last years, there is still a lack of published data with clinical relevance. This is particularly true for football (soccer) in comparison to collision sports with higher incidences of concussions like rugby or Australian Rules Football. In early 2023, the German Football League (Deutsche Fußball Liga; DFL) has published the so-called ‘DFL protocol’ to guide team physicians in the management of football-related head injuries. However, it has not yet been investigated how effective the current procedure is. In addition, DFL has co-funded the SoccHealth branch of the NAKO cohort study which has been conducted in 350 former professional players and may be supportive in assessing, if neurodegeneration occurs more frequent in former players than in matched controls. It will be the task of the PhD candidate to set-up a proper research agenda ("proposal") within the first 6 months which is then defended and finally carried out in collaboration with the supervisors and other involved parties. For further information on requirements check Requirements for applications.

 

 

New Football Quarterly of our phd-Students (klick)

Benedict Gondwe/Rilind Obertinca: 'Considering the reality, I am very lucky': how professional players and staff perceive injury prevention and performance protection in women's football

Ana Ukaj: Sudden cardiac death in national collegiate athletic association athletes: A 20-year study

Edgar Schwarz: Impact of temperature on physical and cognitive performance in elite female football players during intermittent exercise

Rina Meha: Effects of 6-week motor-cognitive agility training on football test performance in adult amateur players – a three-armed randomized controlled trial

Guangze Zhang: Video analysis of Achilles tendon ruptures in professional male football (soccer) reveals underlying injury patterns and provides strategies for injury prevention

Minho Lee: A context-aware loss function for action spotting in soccer videos

Mahnaz Davarnia: Optimizing pre-participation screening to prevent tragedy in young athletes: Moving from if to how

 

BJSM Blog Veröffentlichung  

Riling Obertinca's project "Does a new injury prevention programme (FUNBALL) prevent injuries in youth male football (soccer) players?" has been published in the blog of the British Journal of Sport Medicine. (klick)

 

New Football Quarterly of our phd-Students (klick)

Benedict Gondwe: Can off-field “brains” provide a competitive advantage in professional football?

Rilind Obertinca: The 11+ injury prevention programme decreases rate of hamstring strain injuries in male collegiate soccer players

Ana Ukaj: Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Basketball and Soccer Stadiums,  the Role of Automated External Defibrillators: A Review.  For the BELTRAN Study (BaskEtbaLl and soccer sTadiums:  Registry on Automatic exterNal defibrillators)

Monica Duarte Munoz: Pre-participation medical evaluation in competitive athletes: the experience of an international multisport club

Edgar Schwarz: Core body temperature responses during competitive sporting events: A narrative review.

Rina Meha: Deliberate soccer practice modulates attentional functioning in children

Guangze Zhang: Few training sessions between return to play and first match appearance are associated with an increased propensity for injury: a prospective cohort study of male professional football players during 16 consecutive seasons

 

New Football Quarterly of our phd-Students (klick)

Benedict Gondwe: A survey of organizational structure and operational practices of elite youth football academies and national federations from around the world: A performance and medical perspective. 

Rilind Obertinca: Attitudes, beliefs and factors influencing football coaches’ adherence to the 11+ injury prevention programme. 

Ana Ukaj: Sudden Cardiac Death Caused by a Fatal Association of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (MYH7, p. Arg719Trp), Heterozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia (LDLR, p.Gly343Lys) and SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 Infection.

Mahnaz Davarnia: Value of screening for the risk of sudden cardiac death in young competitive athletes.

Edgar Schwarz: Thermoregulatory, Cardiovascular and Perceptual Responses of Spectators of a Simulated Football Match in Hot and Humid Environmental Conditions.

Rina Meha: Brain endurance training improves physical, cognitive, and multitasking performance in professional football players. 

Guangze Zhang: Return to play following injuries in pro football: insights into the real-life practices of 85 elite practitioners around diagnostics, progression strategies and reintegration processes.

Call for applications (here)

Tim Meyer honored for lifetime achievement:

As part of the award for Saarland Athletes of the Year, Prof. Tim Meyer, Director of the Insitute of Preventive and Sports Medicine, was honored for his lifetime achievement by the Association of Saarland Sports Journalists. (click)

New Football Quarterly of our phd-Students (klick)

Rina Meha: An after-school football session transiently improves cognitive function in children

Benedict Gondwe: Communication quality between the medical team and the head coach/manager is associated with injury burden and player availability in elite football clubs

Rilind Obertinca: Extended Knee Control programme lowers weekly hamstring, knee and ankle injury prevalence compared with an adductor strength programme or self-selected injury prevention exercises in adolescent and adult amateur football players: a two-armed cluster-randomised trial with an additional comparison arm

Ana Ukaj: Cohort profile: the Swedish study of SUDden cardiac Death in the Young (SUDDY) 2000-2010: a complete nationwide cohort of SCDs

Edgar Schwarz: Cold water immersion of the hand and forearm during half-time improves intermittent exercise performance in the heat.

Guangze Zhang: Development of a standardised system to classify injury-inciting circumstances in football: the Football Injury Inciting Circumstances Classification System (FIICCS)

UEFA medical research grant 2023:

The UEFA medical research grant 2023 was awarded to our PhD Student Edgar Schwarz. The funded study will investigate if a cooling intervention can improve the health, safety and performance of footballers playing in the heat. Further details can be found here.

 

No relationship between Covid vaccination and sudden cardiac death in sport

 

A new rumor appears on social media claiming a relationship between the covid vaccination and sudden cardiac death in sport. Our medical director Prof. Tim Meyer and Dr. Florian Egger explain in the local news show "Aktuellen Bericht" (15.12.2021) why there is no scientific evidence for thus rumor. For many years Dr. Egger is thoroughly documenting cases of sudden cardiac death in sports and he says the data does not show any increase in cases since the Covid vaccination startet. You can find the report in German via sr.de (starting around 33 minutes). Details regarding the register can be found here.

The Accuracy of a Low-Cost GPS System during Football-Specific Movements

 

New paper from Emiel Schulze is published: A newly designed, low-cost GPS system was found accurate and reliable during football specific movements, making it a useful and affordable tool for sub-elite teams. 

Results of the FIFA Sudden Death Registry in worldwide Football (FIFA-SDR) published.

In cooperation with FIFA, sudden deaths in worldwide soccer have been registered and their causes investigated in a prospective observational study at the Institute of Sports and Preventive Medicine at Saarland University since 2014.  Dr. Florian Egger (specialist in internal medicine) and Prof. Tim Meyer (medical director) have now published the first results in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, 12/2020:

617 cases of professional and recreational soccer players from 67 countries were reported to the FIFA Registry of Deaths in Football (FIFA-SDR) between 2014 and 2018. Of these, 142 players (23 percent) survived after successful resuscitation. The registry included sudden cardiac deaths and cases with survived cardiac arrest, as well as injury-related deaths in soccer. The average age of the affected soccer players was 34 ± 16 years, and 96 percent were men. The main cause in players over 35 years of age was coronary artery disease (76 percent); in players under 35 years of age, it was autopsy-negative sudden unexplained death (22 percent).

Survival rate for resuscitation with and without defibrillator 85 percent of athletes who suffered sudden cardiac arrest and were treated immediately on scene with a lay defibrillator, an automated external defibrillator (AED), survived. In contrast, without treatment with an AED, the survival rate was only 35 percent. "This result shows how important it is to have a defibrillator on site at soccer fields and at all sports venues in general. It is at least as important to train the athletes, coaches and staff in resuscitation measures on a regular basis. In our study, soccer players were the most frequent first responders on site. They are the ones who save lives in the first place," says Dr. Florian Egger.

 

 

PhD Programme Science and Health in Football  - Introduction external PhD candidates Rilind Obertinca and Rina Meha

Injury Prevention in Football (Rilind Obertinca, Sports Physiotherapist, MSc, Kosovo)

Although football is one of the most popular sports worldwide, it carries a risk of injury for players, both at professional and amateur level and in all age-groups. Studies show that the number of injuries tends to increase with age, with most injuries being located in the lower extremities, particularly at the ankle, knee and thigh.

Given the high importance of injury prevention, recently, the focus on developing injury prevention programs has increased significantly. Some of these programs are designed to prevent specific injuries, such as ACL or hamstring injuries, while others are designed to prevent overall injuries in football.

The aim of this doctoral project is to devlope a new injury prevention program and to analyze its effect on prevention of overall injuries in football payers.

Rilind Obertinca holds a Master of Science in Sports Phyiotherapy from Lithuanian Sports University, Lithuania and a Bachelor of Science in Physiotherapy from University of Prishtina, Kosovo.