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Sports
Special Issues
Improving Health and Performance in Football
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Improving Health and Performance in Football

A special issue of Sports (ISSN 2075-4663).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 January 2027 | Viewed by 2531

Editors

Dr. Michael A Carron

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, QLD 4702, Australia
2. Health Education Lifestyle and Performance (HELP) Laboratory, St Brendan’s College, Yeppoon, QLD 4703, Australia
Interests: athlete health; public health; physical activity; rugby; performance; football; injury; biomechanics; concussion; physiology; education
Dr. Vincent Dalbo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, QLD 4702, Australia
2. Health Education Lifestyle and Performance (HELP) Laboratory, St Brendan’s College, Yeppoon, QLD 4703, Australia
Interests: athlete health; public health; physical activity; muscle; performance; nutrition; psychology; injury; physiology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

“Football” is a general term used to describe sports in which players kick a ball and comprises many sports played globally. Researchers and coaches working with individuals engaged in sport should balance the pursuit of athletic excellence with their responsibility of safeguarding and enhancing the health of individuals engaged in sport. As a result, our Special Issue aims to collate emerging evidence and applied insights that address performance enhancement and/or player health.

Our Special Issue is seeking manuscripts that examine the development of physical qualities, injury prevention, rehabilitation, recovery strategies, and the integration of sport science technologies into training and match environments. We also encourage the submission of manuscripts that examine long-term athlete wellbeing, mental health, and the impact of workload management across different levels of play from youth to professional athletes. Our Special Issue welcomes submissions of original research, meta-analysis, systematic reviews, narrative reviews, commentaries, opinion articles, and perspectives.

We encourage research that examines males and/or females of all ages across all football codes (e.g., football/soccer, rugby league, rugby union, rugby sevens, touch rugby, Australian Rules Football, American Football, Canadian Football, and Gaelic Football). By drawing on diverse populations and settings, our Special Issue aims to broaden the understanding of how performance and health can be promoted throughout life and across different sports. We strive for articles in our Special Issue to collectively demonstrate that athletic development and athlete health should not be viewed as competing goals but interdependent objectives essential to sustaining the growth of football, safeguarding athletes, and helping improve the standard of sport performance and health. 

Dr. Michael A Carron
Dr. Vincent Dalbo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sports is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • athlete
  • soccer
  • rugby
  • football
  • performance
  • mental health
  • physical health
  • training
  • strength and conditioning
  • development
  • equity
  • sport
  • physical activity

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 774 KB  
Article
Health Behaviours in Soccer Support Staff: 24-Hour Movement Adherence Is Positively Associated with Diet Quality
by Olivia C. Coope, Tilly J. Spurr, Alex L. Levington, Tom Davies, Beth Lloyd, Enrique Jordán and Blanca Roman-Viñas
Sports 2026, 14(6), 224; https://doi.org/10.3390/sports14060224 - 29 May 2026
Viewed by 374
Abstract
Soccer support staff operate under demanding schedules and high-performance environments while guiding players’ movement, sleep, and nutrition; however, their own lifestyle behaviours remain under-researched. This exploratory study assessed adherence to the Canadian 24-Hour Movement (24HM) guidelines and its association with diet quality (DQ) [...] Read more.
Soccer support staff operate under demanding schedules and high-performance environments while guiding players’ movement, sleep, and nutrition; however, their own lifestyle behaviours remain under-researched. This exploratory study assessed adherence to the Canadian 24-Hour Movement (24HM) guidelines and its association with diet quality (DQ) in professional and semi-professional soccer support staff. Methods: A cross-sectional survey collected data from 236 staff in the United Kingdom and Spain. Movement behaviours were measured using the Whole Day Matters Toolkit and DQ using the validated Mini-EAT questionnaire. A graded 24HM score (0–8) summed binary adherence across four general (MVPA, LPA, sedentary time, sleep) and four secondary (muscle-strengthening, sedentary interruptions, screen time, sleep–wake time) behaviours. Associations with DQ were estimated using adjusted multiple linear regression. Results: Only 7.6% of participants met all eight guidelines. Each one-point increase in the graded score was associated with 0.89-point higher DQ (95% CI 0.29–1.49, p = 0.004), with stronger associations observed for secondary behaviours (β = 1.27, p = 0.006) than for general behaviours (β = 0.38, p = 0.50). Conclusions: A graded 24HM scoring approach showed a graded association with DQ in soccer staff, with secondary movement behaviours showing a stronger association. All findings should be interpreted as exploratory and hypothesis-generating. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT06771752. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Improving Health and Performance in Football)
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9 pages, 206 KB  
Article
Sensory Processing Patterns and Motor Proficiency in Youth Football Players: A Cross-Sectional Study
by Sultan Akel and Çiğdem Öksüz
Sports 2026, 14(3), 118; https://doi.org/10.3390/sports14030118 - 17 Mar 2026
Viewed by 484
Abstract
Background: Sensory processing and motor proficiency contribute to movement regulation in adolescent athletes. While motor competence has been widely studied in youth football, the role of trait-level sensory processing remains underexplored. This study examined associations between sensory processing patterns and motor proficiency in [...] Read more.
Background: Sensory processing and motor proficiency contribute to movement regulation in adolescent athletes. While motor competence has been widely studied in youth football, the role of trait-level sensory processing remains underexplored. This study examined associations between sensory processing patterns and motor proficiency in adolescent football players. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 116 male youth football players (mean age: 14.16 ± 1.55 years) from a professional academy completed the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile and the Bruininks–Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Second Edition, Brief Form (BOT-2 BF). Spearman correlations were computed across 36 sensory–motor comparisons, with false discovery rate (FDR) correction applied. Partial correlations controlled for age and years of training. Results: After FDR correction, sensation seeking showed a moderate positive association with fine motor precision (ρ = 0.49, p < 0.001). Low registration demonstrated a large negative association with fine motor integration (ρ = −0.61, p < 0.001) and small-to-moderate negative associations with bilateral coordination and balance (|ρ| = 0.27–0.32). These associations remained significant after adjustment. Conclusions: Sensory processing patterns were differentially associated with coordination- and balance-related motor domains. Findings should be considered exploratory and warrant longitudinal and sport-specific investigation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Improving Health and Performance in Football)
21 pages, 639 KB  
Article
SOCCERIndex: An Estimate of Recreational Soccer Players’ Physical Ability by Health Status and Lifestyle Habits
by Beatrice De Lazzari, Federico Caramia, Filippo Lupi, Paolo Salvatore, Giuseppe Vannozzi and Valentina Camomilla
Sports 2026, 14(2), 68; https://doi.org/10.3390/sports14020068 - 5 Feb 2026
Viewed by 941
Abstract
Soccer is practiced by professionals, amateurs, and recreational players. The physical assessment tools used by professionals are rarely available in recreational settings. Given the widespread participation and potential health benefits of soccer activity, it becomes essential to identify simple and accessible indicators that [...] Read more.
Soccer is practiced by professionals, amateurs, and recreational players. The physical assessment tools used by professionals are rarely available in recreational settings. Given the widespread participation and potential health benefits of soccer activity, it becomes essential to identify simple and accessible indicators that can help to characterize physical ability in non-professional players. This cross-sectional observational work explores which health status and lifestyle indices can be useful to estimate physical ability in recreational male soccer players when field testing is not feasible. Sixty-six participants volunteered in the study. Five performance field tests were conducted, and a related overall physical ability index (KPItot) was defined, while a questionnaire was developed to investigate nine BIOIndices (BMI, age, physical activity level, job, alcohol consumption, smoking habits, sports career, occurring injuries, medical history). Data for the selected performance tests are reported for the recruited recreational athletes. KPItot was estimated from BIOIndices, using a stepwise backward regression. The selected model, named SOCCERIndex, incorporates six out of nine BIOIndices, excluding smoking habits, sports career, and medical history (R2 = 0.536). In conclusion, with a simple questionnaire, an estimate of soccer players’ physical ability can be obtained. Further data collection is needed to obtain a more generalizable and robust SOCCERIndex. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Improving Health and Performance in Football)
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