FIFA F-MARC funds soccer research

Posted on 20 December

It’s fun, healthy and practicable to play soccer, shows a research project from the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences, University of Copenhagen. The project has received international attention and Medical Assessment and Research Centre of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) is now donating DKK 2.3 million to the researchers towards further research in soccer and health.

Exercise is not necessarily a torment for the middle-aged. It can be both healthy and fun shows a research experiment. It did not take long for the health benefits to pay off. The participants experienced improvements in both fitness and health even after a short period of training three times a week for one hour.

FIFA’s research unit F-MARC has become so enthusiastic about the scientific project that they have donated DKK 2.3 million to more research on the effects of soccer on life style-related diseases worldwide. The research is led by Associate Professor Peter Krustrup and his colleagues Professor Jens Bangsbo and Assistant Professor Jens Jung Nielsen from the research group, “Integrated Physiology” at the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences.

“We are glad to see F-MARC’s commitment and financial support. Our research group has showed that soccer is a health-benefiting sport for middle-aged Danish men, but we need more knowledge of the amount of training it takes and which effects soccer has on other target groups. The cooperation with F-MARC has an international perspective and will help take our future research to the next level”, says Peter Krustrup.

FIFA F-MARC has chosen both to co-fund already planned projects in Copenhagen and to support new projects led by the research group e.g. on the effects of soccer for women in USA and the effects of soccer at the workplace in FIFA’s headquarters in Switzerland.

The project in Copenhagen covers:

• Health-benefiting effects of soccer in relation to weekly exercise time. Is 30 minutes twice a week or 60 minutes once a week enough to trigger considerable health improvements?
• Health-benefiting and treatment effects of soccer and jogging for young and middle-aged women with hypertension and other life style-related diseases.

According to the researchers, these investigations will form a solid base for scientific recommendations to the approximately 500,000,000 people that plays soccer worldwide, and at the same time be an inspiration to the many people of all ages that do not get enough exercise. In addition to this, the research may be a relevant throw-in in the debate on how companies can organise exercise at the workplace.