INCLUSIVE YOUTH FOOTBALL

ongoing

IN YOUTH FOOTBALL represents a complementary consortium aimed to retain and integrate more youngsters in football based on a strategy that combines participants by their biological development rather than age to reduce maturity-related mismatches in several parameters (body size, strength, power, skills). The general objective of this project is to promote football for all youth by (i) developing a model to group participants according to their biological clock, (ii) implementing a bio-banded approach in a football context, (iii) promoting the model on the schools and combining on football clubs participants that are not playing football using bio-banded events (iii) alert the youth sports organizations and scientific community that biological maturation should be monitored and considered in several sports. Partners of the current project are from three countries in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe (Portugal, Czech Republic, and Poland), and they have a collaborative function to develop, implement, and communicate the impact of the bio-banding model. The University of Coimbra (Portugal) members have experience with the topic. Consequently, they define the strategy to group players by biological development and evaluate and communicate the project. Charles University implements the project in the club. Madeira Football Association and the University of Rzeszow promote the model in schools and apply it within football clubs. Overall, this project will allow for the retention of more participants in football and will provide incentives for sports practice for youngsters, males and females.