Many football injuries can be prevented if appropriate
prophylactic measures are taken.
7–10
Ekstrand et al
9
published
the first prospective randomised intervention study on
amateur teams in 1982 showing that the rate of injury was
75% lower for the intervention teams than for the control
teams. These findings were recently confirmed in an
intervention study on amateur youth players performed by
the F-Marc group, a research group within FIFA (Fe ´de ´ration
Internationale de Football Associations).
10
The mechanisms behind football injuries are complex and
multifactorial.
11–16
The way in which the season is planned is
important with regard to injuries.
13
Ekstrand et al,
17
studying
the relation between training and matches at amateur levels,
found that a high training/match quotient with many
training sessions in relation to the number of matches played
gave greater success and fewer injuries. However, this
relation has not been studied at the professional level.