ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 1998 September;38(3):208-14

Copyright © 1999 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Medical, morphological and functional aspects of Greek football referees

Rontoyannis G. P., Stalikas A., Sarros G., Vlastaris A.

Hellenic Sports Research Institute, Athens, Greece

Objec­tive. The aim of the ­study was to inves­ti­gate ­state of ­health, mor­pho­log­i­cal and func­tion­al pro­file of foot­ball refer­ees (Rs).
Experi­men­tal ­design. A prev­a­lence ­study.
Par­tic­i­pants. 188 ­Greek ­active ­male Rs of A, B, C and D foot­ball divi­sions ­have ­been eval­u­at­ed.
Meas­ures. Stan­dard clin­i­cal-instru­men­tal and anthro­po­met­ric meth­ods ­were ­used. Appro­pri­ate func­tion­al ­tests ­were ­used for eval­u­a­tion of vis­u­al per­for­mance, phys­i­cal con­di­tion and men­tal abil­ity.
­Results. ­Mean age, ­height, ­weight, and BMI ­were 36.3±4.5 ­years, 177.4±5.7 cm, 81.6±7.8 kg, and 25.9±2.1 kg·m-2 respec­tive­ly. 64% and 6% ­were over­weight and ­obese respec­tive­ly. In 27.2% rest­ing ­blood pres­sure exceed­ed ­upper nor­mal lim­its. ­Active (41.5%) and for­mer smok­ers (17.0%) ­were iden­ti­fied. Vis­u­al acu­ity and ­colour dis­crim­i­na­tion ­were defec­tive in 2.4% and 0.7% respec­tive­ly. Ster­eo ­depth per­cep­tion defi­cient­ly in 7.1%. Com­pared to inter­na­tion­al stan­dards, Rs’ ­mean ­scores in the 6 phys­i­cal con­di­tion ­field ­tests ­were ­found sat­is­fac­to­ry. All Rs ­were ­found effi­cient in the agil­ity ­test, two-­thirds in the max­i­mal and pro­longed ­speed ­tests and ­half of ­them in the endu­rance ­test. Rel­a­tive­ly ­more Rs of A and B divi­sions ­were ­found fit as com­pared to Rs of C and D divi­sions. Aver­age IQ ­score was 112.5±11.1, ­while ­about 90% and 34% of the Rs’ IQ ­score was ≥100 and ≥120 respec­tive­ly.
Con­clu­sions. Aver­age ­male ­Greek foot­ball R is an appar­ent­ly ­healthy, ­young to mid­dle ­aged, rath­er over­weight, and func­tion­al­ly effi­cient. The ­great major­ity of Rs of A and B divi­sions ­appear bet­ter ­trained and some­what bet­ter func­tion­al ­than Rs of C and D divi­sions.