The Damaging Effects of Intersectionality and Layers of Oppression on United States Female Soccer Players

Black athletes face structural and overt racism in all sports across the country, in which the majority of White Americans either chooses to ignore or sometimes even use to victimize certain athletes. They are discriminated against because of the color of their skin, despite achieving the same levels of success and fame as their white competitors. Black athletes must work harder than white athletes for the same end goal, not because of any sort of athletic disadvantage, but because of racial injustice and intolerance. Soccer is a prime example of how Black athletes face racism in sport. Black female soccer players, however, face many more layers of oppression compared to not only Black male soccer players, but also their female counterparts. The lack of representation and involvement of Black female athlete in the sport of soccer shows the repercussions of these layers of oppression. The sport of soccer favors male athletes and their success, caters to middle- and upper-class families and individuals, and structural racism within athletics prefers white athletes

This House Proves that Debating is Harder than Soccer

During the last twenty years, a lot of research was conducted on the sport elimination problem: Given a sports league and its remaining matches, we have to decide whether a given team can still possibly win the competition, i.e., place first in the league at the end. Previously, the computational complexity of this problem was investigated only for games with two participating teams per game. In this paper we consider Debating Tournaments and Debating Leagues in the British Parliamentary format, where four teams are participating in each game. We prove that it is NP-hard to decide whether a given team can win a Debating League, even if at most two matches are remaining for each team. This contrasts settings like football where two teams play in each game since there this case is still polynomial time solvable. We prove our result even for a fictitious restricted setting with only three teams per game. On the other hand, for the common setting of Debating Tournaments we show that this problem is fixed parameter tractable if the parameter is the number of remaining rounds $k$. This also holds for the practically very important question of whether a team can still qualify for the knock-out phase of the tournament and the combined parameter $k + b$ where $b$ denotes the threshold rank for qualifying. Finally, we show that the latter problem is polynomial time solvable for any constant $k$ and arbitrary values $b$ that are part of the input.Comment: 18 pages, to appear at FUN 201

Children's rights in football: Welfare and work

This paper examines issues of labour and play in children's football. It asks whether global capitalism and the growth of girls' and women's football might lead to greater sexual victimization among female players

The role of motion analysis in elite soccer

The optimal physical preparation of elite soccer (association football) players has become an indispensable part of the professional game especially due to the increased physical demands of match-play. The monitoring of players’ work-rate profiles during competition is now feasible through computer-aided motion analysis. Traditional methods of motion analysis were extremely labour intensive and were largely restricted to university- based research projects. Recent technological developments have meant that sophisticated systems, capable of quickly recording and processing the data of all players’ physical contributions throughout an entire match, are now being used in elite club environments. In recognition of the important role motion analysis now plays as a tool for measuring the physical performance of soccer players, this review critically appraises various motion analysis methods currently employed in elite soccer and explores research conducted using these methods. This review therefore aims to increase the awareness of both practitioners and researchers of the various motion analysis systems available, identify practical implications of the established body of knowledge, while highlighting areas that require further exploration

Work-rate of substitutes in elite soccer: A preliminary study

The aim of this study was to investigate the work-rate of substitutes in professional soccer. A computerised player tracking system was used to assess the work-rates of second-half substitutes (11 midfielders and 14 forwards) in a French Ligue 1 club. Total distance, distance covered in five categories of movement intensity and recovery time between high-intensity efforts were evaluated. First- and second-half work-rates of the replaced players were compared. The performance of substitutes was compared to that of the players they replaced, to team-mates in the same position who remained on the pitch after the substitution and in relation to their habitual performances when starting games. No differences in work-rate between first- and second-halves were observed in all players who were substituted. In the second-half, a non-significant trend was observed in midfield substitutes who covered greater distances than the player they replaced whereas no differences were observed in forwards. Midfield substitutes covered a greater overall distance and distance at high-intensities (p<0.01) and had a lower recovery time between high-intensity efforts (p<0.01) compared to other midfield team-mates who remained on the pitch. Forwards covered less distance (p<0.01) in their first 10-minutes as a substitute compared to their habitual work-rate profile in the opening 10-minutes when starting matches while this finding was not observed in midfielders. These findings suggest that compared to midfield substitutes, forward substitutes did not utilise their full physical potential. Further investigation is warranted into the reasons behind this finding in order to optimise the work-rate contributions of forward substitutes

‘It’s like equality now; it’s not as if it’s the old days’: an investigation into gender identity development and football participation of adolescent girls

This article explores the influence participating in football has on the development of adolescent girls’ gender identity, an area which currently lacks academic attention. Data were taken from an ethnographic study with a group of adolescent girls and boys and compared to Jeanes’ research. A social constructionist framework was deployed with links to both critical theory and feminist literature. Qualitative and participatory methods were used to fully engage with the complex issue of gender identity. The girls within this study were aware of the normative gender expectations linked to ‘being a female’ but did not find this restrictive. The girls moved between many changing identities and organised their ‘web of selves’ accordingly. The apparent need to measure success by the parameters of male standards created a barrier to girls’ identity development

A prospective analysis of the injury incidence of young male professional football players on artificial turf

Background: The effects of synthetic surfaces on the risk of injuries is still debated in literature and the majority of published data seems to be contradictory. For such reasons the understanding of injury incidence on such surfaces, especially in youth sport, is fundamental for injury prevention. Objectives: The aim of this study was to prospectively report the epidemiology of injuries in young football players, playing on artificial turfs, during a one sports season. Patients and Methods: 80 young male football players (age 16.1 ± 3.7 years; height 174 ± 6.6 cm; weight 64.2 ± 6.3 kg) were enrolled in a prospective cohort study. The participants were then divided in two groups; the first included players age ranging from 17 to 19 (OP) whereas the second included players age ranging from 13 to 16 (YP). Injury incidence was recorded prospectively, according to the consensus statement for soccer. Results: A total of 107 injuries (35 from the OP and 72 from the YP) were recorded during an exposure time of 83.760 hours (incidence 1.28/1000 per player hours); 22 during matches (incidence 2.84/1000 per player hours, 20.5%) and 85 during training (incidence 1.15/1000 per player hours, 79.5%). Thigh and groin were the most common injury locations (33.6% and 21.5%, respectively) while muscle injuries such as contractures and strains were the most common injury typologies (68.23%). No statistical differences between groups were displayed, except for the rate of severe injuries during matches, with the OP displaying slightly higher rates compared to the YP. Severe injuries accounted for 10.28% of the total injuries reported. The average time lost due to injuries was 14 days. Re-injuries accounted for 4.67% of all injuries sustained during the season. Conclusions: In professional youth soccer injury rates are reasonably low. Muscle injuries are the most common type of injuries while groin and thigh the most common locations. Artificial turf pitches don’t seem to contribute to injury incidence in young football players

The effect of an early dismissal on player work-rate in a professional soccer match

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of an early dismissal (after 5-minutes play) on work-rate in a professional soccer match. A computerised player tracking system was used to assess the work-rates of seven players who completed the match on the team with 10 players. A minute-by-minute analysis of the remaining 91mins following the dismissal was performed for the total distance covered, the distance covered in five categories of movement intensity and the recovery time between high-intensity efforts for each player. The data were calculated for each half and for three equal intervals within each half and profiled against normative data for the same players obtained from analyses of 15 games in the same season. Following the dismissal, the players covered a greater total distance than normal (p<0.025), particularly in moderate-intensity activities (p<0.01) and had shorter recovery times between high-intensity efforts (p<0.025). In contrast, there was a significant reduction between game halves for total distance covered at both the highest (p<0.025) and lowest running intensities (p<0.01). However, there were no differences in high-intensity activities across the three intervals in the second-half. These findings suggest that in 11 v 11, players may not always utilise their full physical potential as this match illustrated an increase in overall work-rate when reduced to 10 players. However, as a team with 10 players is likely to incur higher levels of fatigue, tactical alterations may be necessary and/or players may adopt a pacing strategy to endure the remainder of the match

The Nature and Nurture of Sports Performance, Blog 6

Student blog posts from the Great VCU Bike Race Book

Sports, Inc. Volume 7, Issue 1

The ILR Cornell Sports Business Society magazine is a semester publication titled Sports, Inc. This publication serves as a space for our membership to publish and feature in-depth research and well-thought out ideas to advance the world of sport. The magazine can be found in the Office of Student Services and is distributed to alumni who come visit us on campus. Issues are reproduced here with permission of the ILR Cornell Sports Business Society.https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/sportsinc/1008/thumbnail.jp