Jury selects research projects for 2019/20

The jury for the UEFA Research Grant Programme – designed for academics working in partnership with national associations to deliver research that improves strategic decision-making in European football – has chosen the projects for the 2019/20 season.

The Research Grant Programme was established to support visionary research in European football. It is for anyone working on, or already holding, a PhD who is analysing European football from a variety of academic disciplines. UEFA-funded research projects are intended to produce findings that the European football community can use to make informed decisions and that UEFA and its member associations can use to improve their activities and projects.

This year, UEFA received 59 proposals for research projects, with those projects being developed for and in conjunction with 27 different member associations – a clear sign of associations’ strong interest in relevant academic research. All 59 proposals made it through to the second assessment stage, and after a comprehensive review, the following six were chosen by the jury, two of which are joint projects:

• Understanding the role of men in facilitating gender equity in football governance by Donna de Haan, The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands. Joint project supported by the English Football Association and in collaboration with Leanne Norman, Leeds Beckett University, England.

• Performance and physiological analysis of overtime: implications for recovery and training by Ioannis Fatouros, University of Thessaly, Greece. Joint project supported by the Hellenic Football Federation and in collaboration with Georgios Ermidis, Parthenope University of Naples, Italy, and Magni Mohr, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.

• Football and refugees: cultural anthropology of the Balkan corridor (2015–2019) by Rahela Jurković, PhD from the University of Zagreb, Croatia. Project supported by the Croatian Football Federation.

• Vergleich der fußball-spezifischen taktischen Leistungsfähigkeit von Frauen und Männern in Europa (Comparison of football-specific tactical performance of women and men in Europe) by Daniel Memmert, German Sport University Cologne, Germany. Project supported by the German Football Association.

• Understanding the recovery time course in elite football referees during a congested match schedule (‘Refcovery’ project) by Javier Sánchez, European University of Madrid, Spain. Project supported by the Royal Spanish Football Federation.

• Virtual reality (VR) as a training tool for referee performance by Tammie van Biemen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands. Project supported by the Royal Netherlands Football Association.

These researchers will spend the next nine months carrying out their research in cooperation with the supporting national associations before presenting their findings to UEFA next year.

UEFA Research Grant Programme Jury

Representatives of the European football community:
Michel D’Hooghe (chairman of the UEFA Research Grant Programme Jury)
Evelina Christillin (European member of the FIFA Council)
Alfred Ludwig (former chief executive of the Austrian Football Association)
Ivančica Sudac (head of international affairs and licensing at the Croatian Football Federation)
Hannu Tihinen (sporting director at the Football Association of Finland and a former international player)

University representatives:
Prof. Susan Bridgewater (University of Liverpool, England)
Prof. Paul Downward (Loughborough University, England)
Prof. Jan Ekstrand (former vice-chairman of the UEFA Medical Committee, chief medical officer, Aspetar, Qatar)
Prof. Jürgen Mittag (German Sport University Cologne, Germany)
Prof. Fabien Ohl (University of Lausanne, Switzerland)

This article originally appeared in UEFA Direct 186