Knowledge of factors that infl uence compliance with an
intervention is still limited. This study is one of few that have
aimed to identify these factors. The fi ndings demonstrated
that attitudes towards injury prevention training are associated
with the rate of uptake of an intervention. Attitudes are
developed from an early age. It may be important to implement
injury prevention training as soon as children start participating
in organised sports to make it a natural part of their
training routines. It is also necessary to increase the understanding
of the benefi ts of injury prevention among coaches
in both youth and elite sports. Injury prevention training
thus ought to be a core element of coach education and training
programmes in football and other sports.
When recording and reporting compliance in team sports
there should be a distinction between compliance among
teams and among individual players. The compliance of
a team is highly dependent on the motivation, choices and
actions of the head coach. Recording individual participation,
on the other hand, reveals the rate of uptake and actual usage
of the intervention for each player. The recording of individual
compliance is thus necessary to investigate how compliance
infl uences the effect of an intervention and to identify
possible exposure–response relationships. Recording team
and player compliance together will provide detailed data on
the overall compliance with the intervention (fi gure 1), and
such methods should be applied in future research.