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Medical Symposium

Medical

8th UEFA Medical Symposium

The importance of medicine in football

8th UEFA Medical Symposium, Frankfurt, 31 January–2 February 2023

Organisers
Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and the German Football Association (DFB)

Every four years, UEFA, through its Medical Committee, organises a medical symposium for the national team doctors of all UEFA member associations as well as the doctors of the top European clubs that participate in the UEFA elite club injury study. UEFA is delighted to welcome the participants, speakers, medical committee members to the symposium and wishes everyone an interesting conference.

The theme of the 2023 symposium is 'The importance of medicine in football', focusing on the significant evolution of football medicine in the last few years and its crucial role in the modern game. Each session presented at this symposium has been carefully picked by the medical committee and the UEFA medical administration to portray the important role that medicine plays in football and how it can benefit the overall team performance.

Although this is the first time that UEFA has included industry and business partners' participation at the event, the symposium scientific programme was designed to be completely product/service neutral, based exclusively on the feedback of the team doctors after the last symposium in Greece. All organisers and programme designers have signed the COI-disclosure and have no conflict of interest, as well as all our symposium speakers. The UEFA medical unit is in the possession of originals of the COI-disclosures and will be happy to present them, upon request.

Event finances

Addresses

UEFA 

Route de Genève 46
1260 Nyon
Switzerland
Tel: +41 848 00 27 27
Fax: +41 22 707 27 34
UEFA.com

UEFA medical contact

Tel: +41 848 00 27 27
Tel: +41 22 702 87 41
medical@uefa.ch

Deutscher Fussball-Bund DFB

DFB-Campus
Schwarzwaldstr
60528 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
DFB

Venue

DFB-Campus
Schwarzwaldstr
60528 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
DFB

'Sport shapes the house' was the motto of the architectural design for the new home of German football. This motto has now become reality: football and administration have grown together under one roof in the new campus. In the new building, staff collaborate on the central topics of the number one sport in Germany. The purpose is two-fold: creating the best conditions for the base, and developing talent for success at the top.

The DFB Campus
The DFB CampusDFB

Committees

Organising Committee

Zoran Bahtijarević ­­­– UEFA chief medical officer
Niki Papadimitriou – UEFA medical manager
Luka Aleksić – UEFA medical assistant
Loïc Noirat – UEFA medical and anti-doping assistant
Thomas Hauser – DFB head of medicine & science
Fiona Pförtke – DFB-Academy senior project manager
Gabriel Monthuley – DFB intern medical-centre

UEFA Medical Committee

Tim Friedrich Meyer (Germany), Chairman
Charlotte Cowie (England), Deputy chair
Helena Herrero (Spain), 1st vice-chairwoman
John MacLean (Scotland), 2nd vice-chairman
Zoran Bahtijarević (Croatia), 3rd vice-chairman
Bisser Bochev (Bulgaria)
Juan Carlos Miralles (Andorra)
Magnus Forssblad (Spain)
Mete Düren (Türkiye)
Andrea Ferretti (Italy)
Georgios Godolias (Greece)
Elke Van Den Steen (Belgium)
Simone Grana (San Marino)
Emmanuel Orhant (France)
Zsolt Szelid (Hungary)
Eduard Bezuglov (Russia)
Marko Noć (Slovenia)
Petros Agathangelou (Cyprus)

Scientific Committee

Tim Friedrich Meyer – Prof. Dr. me d. (conflict of interest disclosure form)
Charlotte Cowie – Chief medical officer, English FA (COI form)
Zsolt Szelid – Cardiologist and sport medicine specialist (COI form)
John MacLean – Director and CIO, Hampden sports clinic (COI form)
Marko Noć – Professor of medicine, University of Ljubljana (COI form)

Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappe receives treatment during a UEFA Champions League group stage match in October 2022
Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappe receives treatment during a UEFA Champions League group stage match in October 2022AFP via Getty Images

Faculty

Zoran Bahtijarević – Chief medical officer, UEFA (Switzerland)
Igor Borić – CEO and head of radiology department, St Catherine Speciality Hospital (Croatia)
Christopher Carling – Head of performance, French Football Federation (France)
Nicol van Dyk – Medical research lead, Irish Rugby Football Union (Ireland)
Eva Ferrer – Female sport health specialist, FC Barcelona innovation hub (Spain)
Edwin Goedhart – Chief medical officer, KNVB (Netherlands)
Hans-Dieter Hermann – Sports psychology, Institute of Sports Sciences, Tübingen (Germany)
Thomas Hitzlsperger – Former CEO VfB Stuttgart (Germany)
Piet Hoebeke – Dean, faculty of medicine & health sciences, Gent University (Belgium)
Jens Kleinefeld – Emergency medicine specialist, CEO SMS GmBh, (Germany)
Jaroslaw Krzywański – National Centre for Sports Medicine, Warsaw (Poland)
Rebecca Lee – Anti-doping team leader, UEFA (Switzerland)
Ronald Maughan – School of medicine, St Andrews University (United Kingdom)
Alan McCall – Head of research & development, Arsenal FC (United Kingdom)
Tim Meyer – Head of institute of sports and preventive medicine, Saarland University (Germany)
Iñigo Mujika – University of Basque Country (Spain)
Anna Nordström – Professor of public health and sport sciences, Umeå University (Sweden)
Claus Reinsberger – Professor and chair of sports medicine, Paderborn University (Germany)
Jürgen Scharhag – Institute of sports science, Vienna University (Austria)
Michael Sjöö – Aviation medicine specialist (Sweden)
Axel Urhausen – Sports clinic, Hospital Centre of Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
Markus Waldén – Lead researcher, Football Research Group (Sweden)

Programme

'The importance of medicine in football'

Tuesday 31 January 

Start timeContentSpeaker(s)
14:00Opening ceremony
14:30DFB introduction: recent challenges for football medicineTim Meyer, GER
15:00UEFA: introduction speechZoran Bahtijarević, CRO
15:15Communication: medical teams and coachesDino Poimann, GER
16:00Break
16:30ECIS 2018–2023: new findings and new directionsMarkus Waldén, SWE
17:00Prevention of hamstring injuries (Nordic hamstrings)Nicol van Dyk, IRE
17:30How to avoid over-diagnosis from modern imagingIgor Borić, CRO
18:00Anti-doping regulations: new traps and pitfallsMario Thevis, GER
18:30Therapeutic Use ExemptionRebecca Lee, UEFA
19:00Close of day one
20:00UEFA official dinner

Wednesday 1 February

Start timeContentSpeaker(s)
09:00State of the art in concussion managementEdwin Goedhart, NED
09:30How to do neurological baseline screening properlyAnna Nordström, SWE
10:00The role of headers for brain healthClaus Reinsberger, GER
10:30International sports concussion consensus updateJon Patricios, RSA
11:00Break
11:30Menstrual cycle-based trainingRita Tomás, POR
12:00Playing football during pregnancyEva Ferrer, ESP
12:30The issue of gender verificationPiet Hoebeke, BEL
13:00Lunch
14:00Screening examinations to identify cardiac diseaseAxel Urhausen, LUX
14:30What to do when "it happens"? An analysis of real-life casesZoran Bahtijarević, CRO, Jens Kleinefeld, GER
15:00Return-to-play with cardiac conditions Jürgen Scharhag, AUT
15:30Group photo
15:40Break
16:00Post-Covid challenges for football playersJaroslaw Krzywański, POL
16:30Football in the heatRon Maughan, SCO
17:00Day two close
20:00DFB official dinner

Thursday 2 February

09:00How to avoid overloadChris Carling, FRA
09:30ACWR: helpful or a waste of time?Alan McCall, SCO
10:00Management of long-haul and other flightsMichael Sjöö, SWE
10:30Break
11:00Individualisation of recoveryIñigo Mujika, ESP
11:30Health care for players in clubs and national teamsRound table
12:30Conclusion and close of the symposiumTim Meyer, GER
12:45Lunch
14:00Workshop: ECG interpretationJürgen Scharhag, GER
14:00Workshop: neurological baseline screeningClaus Reinsberger, GER
14:00Workshop: emergency management with the European Resuscitation Council (ERC)Carsten Lott (GER), Jens Kleinefeld (GER), Michael Sjöö (SWE)
14:30Departure of all participants

The programme was designed to be completely product/service neutral, based exclusively on the feedback of the team doctors after the last symposium in Greece. All organisers and programme designers have signed the COI-disclosure and have no conflict of interest, as well as all our symposium speakers. The UEFA medical unit is in the possession of originals of the COI-disclosures and will be happy to present them, upon request.