Covid Research From FA Schools

[Karen Browne]

To:          All Registered Schools’ Football Associations

 

Dear Colleagues,

 

As the end of term approaches, I hope you are all looking forward to a well-deserved break over the festive period. 

 

To help with your plans for football, I am pleased to share with you (below) the headline outcomes of some research undertaken on behalf of The Football Association and the Premier League, with regard to the incidences of COVID in football.  You may find this useful when conducting your risk assessments or when sharing your plans/decisions with headteachers, governors, parents or committee members.

 

We look forward to seeing you all in the New Year.

"Dr Charlotte Cowie (Head of Performance Medicine) has provided some evidence below for the safety of football with regard to Covid-19 transmission. 

• The PL and the FA collaborated in a study where GPS data from over 200 PL matches was analysed. The study showed that on average, the amount of time that any one player is within 2m of any other player is less than 90 seconds. This finding has now been supported by studies in Germany and Denmark. 
• In the study, examples of situations in which contact occurred included: Set plays, pauses in the match where players come to the touchline to talk, pauses in the match where players engage with each other or the referee on-pitch and goal celebrations. Caution with these elements of the game will help to decrease contact further without affecting general play. 
• This evidence is from professional football but even if contact in Grassroots football was twice that in the professional game (which seems unlikely), this would still only equate to 180 seconds. 
• Since Project Restart, the monitoring of regular Covid19 testing in the PL and WSL has confirmed that whilst there are positive tests, there are no examples of on-pitch transmission. When investigated, transmission at clubs is related to poor compliance with off-pitch protocols, particularly around shared facilities and equipment such as gyms, changing rooms and transport. This is why it is so important that off-pitch protocols are strictly followed. 
• We have no examples of transmission from one player to an opposing player."

 

Kind regards,

 

Andrea Chilton

Chief Executive

English Schools’ Football Association