PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Al Attar, Wesam Saleh A
AU  - Alkabkabi, Fahad M
AU  - Alshamrani, Nasser G
AU  - Alarifi, Saud
AU  - Ghulam, Hussain Saleh H
AU  - Alzahrani, Hosam
AU  - Aljedaani, Eman F
AU  - Sanders, Ross H
TI  - 284 The effect of the fédération internationale de football association (FIFA) 11+ referees injury prevention program in reducing injury rates among soccer referees and assistant referees: a randomized controlled trial
AID  - 10.1136/bjsports-2021-IOC.262
DP  - 2021 Nov 01
TA  - British Journal of Sports Medicine
PG  - A110--A110
VI  - 55
IP  - Suppl 1
4099  - http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/55/Suppl_1/A110.2.short
4100  - http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/55/Suppl_1/A110.2.full
SO  - Br J Sports Med2021 Nov 01; 55
AB  - Background The Fédération International de Football Association (FIFA) 11+ Referees injury prevention program is a structured warm-up program specially designed to prevent injuries among soccer referees and assistant referees and its efficacy is yet to be fully documented in the literature.Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the FIFA 11+ Referees injury prevention program in reducing injury rates among soccer referees and assistant referees.Design Randomized controlled trial.Setting Competitive soccer.Patients (or Participants) Two hundred male soccer referees and assistant referees aged (32±4.24), participated in this study. The participants were randomly allocated into the experimental or a control group.Interventions (or Assessment of Risk Factors) The experimental group performed the FIFA 11+ program as warm-up during training sessions for at least twice a week, and the control group performed their usual warm-ups. Participants were prospectively followed during one season (6 months).Main Outcome Measurements The primary outcome was to investigate the incidence of initial, recurrent injury and injury severity. The secondary outcome was to measure the rate of compliance by a review of the registered participations.Results A total of 24 injuries were reported among 100 referees in the control group in 16,606 h of exposure (1.45 injuries/1000 h), and a total of 9 injuries were reported across 100 referees within the experimental group in 17,834 exposure hours (0.50 injuries/1000 h). The injury risk ratio IRR was 0.35 (95% CI 0.26 to 0.45), which indicates that the injuries in the experimental group reduced by 65% when compared to the control group.Conclusions Implementation of the FIFA 11+ referees injury prevention program reduced overall injury rates in male soccer referees and assistant referees more than the usual warm-up.