10.1.3 FIFA Medical Centres of Excellence
Centre for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine
On 31 March 2008 Prof. Jiri Dvorak, MD, FIFA Chief Medical Officer and Chairman of F-MARC officially inaugurated the Centre for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine (CESSM) at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg as the first FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence in Africa. The presence of the health minister and many high ranking officials of Wits and the sporting and medical community of South African indicated that here, a legacy was created far beyond the 2010 FIFA World Cup™.
“It is a great honour to have been recognised as a contributor to football medicine locally, on the continent and internationally”, said Dr Demitri Constantinou, Director of the CESSM. “I view it also as a catalyst for the Centre in the future – in all spheres of football medicine, research and educating health professionals to further develop themselves and to give back to football. The “beautiful game” is a wonderful forum for the uplifting of society both physically and psychologically, and for the promoting of health. We are uniquely placed to have the integration of sport science with medicine, which broadens and strengthens our activities. We look forward to contributing to the visions of FIFA, FMARC, the centre and the university.”
The CESSM has been identified as the Centre of Specialisation for Football by the South African Football Association and the South African Olympic Committee. In their SAFA-Wits-National Lottery project, the centre considerably contributed to the development of football and promoted participation, performance and life skills for young players. The team offers laboratory and field testing, feedback and recommendations for training. Practising a strictly multi-disciplinary approach, they provide treatment as well as comprehensive rehabilitation programmes tailored to individual needs.
Centre for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
http://web.wits.ac.za/Academic/Health/TherapeuticSciences/ExerciseScience/Home.htm
Fig. 10.1.3.4 Prof. Dvorak presents Dr Constantinou with the official certificate (on the left Dr Motaung)
10.2.3 “The 11+” in Adolescent Male Players in Africa
Why we are conducting this study
In the “Football for Health in Africa” initiative, F-MARC concentrate on disease prevention. Given the popularity of the game among the black population and the high degree of organisation in the host country of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, football is indeed an ideal link to engage in disadvantaged youth to promote health, social and life skills. Disadvantaged in this context means “deprived of some of the basic necessities or advantages of life, such as adequate housing, medical care, or educational facilities.” Among 13-18 year old South Africans, football is by far the most popular sport. Though the exact incidence of football injuries in South Africa is to date unknown, we know from epidemiological studies all over the world that the game is burdened with a comparably high injury risk. In order to tap the full potential of the game in enhancing not only the physical, but also the mental well-being and social skills of players, negative effects such as injuries and their sequelae need to be minimised. Injury prevention in the extremely vulnerable population of disadvantaged black youth would therefore allow them to maximally benefit from education and prevention while averting damage due to inadequate or unavailable treatment. However, ease of implementation and non-interference with the joy of play are substantial requirements for any successful approach to injury prevention in this target group. After the encouraging results of a previous study in Norwegian female youth players, the F-MARC “The 11+ - a complete warm-up programme” is seen as the ideal vehicle to introduce to these adolescent players an injury prevention programme using effective exercises that can be easily incorporated into their training.
Aims of the study
· Assessing the acceptability and practicability of a standardised exposure and injury recording system in disadvantaged male black youth players in South Africa
· Analyse the incidence and characteristics of football injuries in this group
· Test the feasibility of implementation of “The 11+” in this group
· Evaluate the effectiveness of the “The 11+” programme in preventing football injuries in this group
· Impart, at least to a group of trainers initially, in an educational way the principles of the “The 11+” programme within the communities where disadvantaged South Africans reside, and thus empower them to continue making use of the programme
The study will consist of two parts. In a first phase in 2009, the feasibility of injury and exposure recording in this setting will be tested, and will also give an indication of the injury incidence in the target group. The results of this pilot will allo for a more accurate planning of the intervention study in 2010. The effectiveness of “The 11+” programme in preventing football injuries will then be evaluated in a cluster randomised intervention study with an adequate number of youth players. We want to show that the “The 11+” programme reduces the incidence of football injuries in adolescent male black football players by 25%. The teams of the intervention group will perform the prevention programme at every training session during one football season, while the teams of the control group perform their normal warm-up.
Duration: 2009-2010
Country: South Africa
Cooperation: Dr Demitri Constantinou, Centre of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa