Introduction: Football -
The Beautiful Game as a Field of Study
Thomas Reilly
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The collection of reviews in this issue have been commissioned for
the Bulletin of ICSSPE through the aegis of the International Steering
Group of Science and Football. This body is one of the working groups
of the World Commission of Science and Sports. The focus on association
football (soccer) is timely, since the World Cup finals are being held
in Germany from June 9 to July 9, the nation that currently also hosts
the offices of ICSSPE. As this issue is produced, the whole of Germany
looks forward to this grand festival of professional sport with keen
anticipation. The tournament will constitute an unforgettable experience
for those attending matches, watching on the giant TV screens in the
football fans’ parks, or in the relative domesticity of their
own homes.
Football is not just the world’s most popular sport, followed
with passion and played with panache in all countries around the world.
The game itself and the football communities under its spell are increasingly
becoming areas of academic study and the subject of serious research.
This series of brief reviews mark the forthcoming World Cup competition
by focusing on four main areas. There is first an outline of the study
of science and football and a description of how scientific knowledge
is implemented in selected countries. In a second review, the use of
match analysis is described and contemporary approaches to the objective
study of players’ behaviour are explained. The search for young
talent is an enduring area of investigation that has been of interest
to ICSSPE for some years and this area is covered in the case of young
footballers. Finally, the forgotten experts of the game, the referees
and assistants– forgotten, unless their decisions are questioned
by fans and commentators. The stresses on officials have been a concern
of the ruling bodies and the research work on referees is summarised
in this fourth article.
The ‘special issue’ highlights one sport but for a unique
occasion. This sport is most certainly going to grab the attention of
a new generation in a few short weeks. It will engage the emotions of
partisan observers on one hand whilst others will watch the game with
a detached curiosity. The authors of these articles have devoted themselves
to the study of football and therefore present their perspectives of
the state of knowledge about their particular areas of interest.

http://www.icsspe.org/portal/index.php?w=1&z=5
Introduction: Football -
The Beautiful Game as a Field of Study
Thomas Reilly
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