Health Initiatives
How FIFPRO and Unions Support Players' Health
The health and safety of players is of paramount importance to FIFPRO and national unions. Professional footballers play out their career in full view of the general public and media, and are exposed to conditions likely to induce mental health problems, on top of common injuries that often occur in a player's career.
Ensuring a Safe and Healthy Working Environment
FIFPRO and player unions are at the forefront of addressing the issue of concussion. Adequate health and safety protocols, as well as industry-tailored approach to research, are still missing.
Launched in 2019, the Drake Football Study is a 10-year project tracking the physical and mental health of footballers.
Following several high-profile competitions played in hot conditions, a series of cross-sectional studies showed that national team players and managers unanimously agreed that hot and humid conditions made performance difficult during matches.
FIFPRO and player unions remain devoted to elevating the quality of minimum medical requirements across competitions and educating footballers adequately on the recognition of sudden cardiac arrest.
Raising awareness of the mental health struggles faced by footballers in today’s game is one of FIFPRO’s most pressing concerns. It is vital that mental health problems can be diagnosed and correctly treated with the same commitment and care as physical injuries.
FIFPRO, the Professional Footballers Association, Nike, and Leeds Beckett University are collaborating to accelerate research into reducing Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries and increasing player availability.
An unbalanced calendar puts the health and career prospects of players at risk. It can threaten to diminish peak sporting performance and, consequently, the quality of competitions. This is an increasing issue in men’s and women's football and FIFPRO is committed to monitoring workload through the PWM platform.
