Injuries and musculoskeletal complaints in football referees

Abstract

Football (soccer) is the the most popular sport worldwide, with a constantly increasing number of male and – moreover – female players. There would be no official football match without the referee and the two assistant referees. The three officials are responsible for ensuring that the players follow the Laws of the Game. Over the last ten years, several studies have examined various aspects of the referee’s performance and training. However, contrary to players, there is a lack of research on injuries in football referees. Therefore, the main aim of this thesis was to investigate the injuries and musculoskeletal complaints of male and female football referees at different levels of performance.

Paper I: Bizzini M, Junge A, Bahr R, Dvorak J. Injuries and musculoskeletal complaints in referees: a complete survey in the top divisions of the Swiss football league. Clin J Sports Med 2009: 19(2):95-100

Paper II: Bizzini M, Junge A, Bahr R, Helsen W, Dvorak J. Injuries and musculoskeletal complaints in referees and assistant referees selected for the 2006 FIFA World Cup: retrospective and prospective study. Br J Sports Med. 2009 Jul; 43(7): 490-7. Epub 2008 Jul 4

Paper III: Bizzini M, Junge A, Bahr R, Dvorak J. Female soccer referees selected for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2007: a survey of injuries and musculoskeletal complaints. Br J Sports Med. 2008 Oct 16 (Epub ahead of print)

Paper IV: Bizzini M, Junge A, Bahr R, Dvorak J. Injuries in football referees: a representative survey of Swiss referees officiating at all levels of play. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2009 Oct 22 (Epub ahead of print)