Several recent studies have revealed that high caliber European professional soccer players often have diminished levels of neurological functioning, yet no study has been able to identify the specific aspect of soccer participation responsible for these decreases. In an effort to identify a source of mild traumatic brain injury present in everyday participation in soccer, this study investigated whether a single bout of heading a soccer ball would have acute detrimental, measurable effects on sensorimotor and neurocognitive functioning. We hypothesized that subjects would exhibit significant changes in postural stability, memory, and concentration immediately after an acute bout of repeated heading a soccer ball. Additionally, we evaluated the protective effect(s) associated with wearing a mouthguard while performing the acute bout of heading. Twenty-eight elite level soccer players (mean age, 20.9 �� 2.5 yrs) were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups: Headers with mouthguard (n=10), Headers with no mouthguard (n=10), and Control (n=8). Subjects in the two treatment groups performed 12 headers of soccer balls projected at 40 km/hr from an electric soccer ball-launching machine. Postural stability was evaluated using a Biodex Stability System, while memory and concentration were assessed using Wechsler Digit Span (WDS) tests (digits forward and digits backward) in a 3 x 2 factorial ANOVA design (��=0.05). There were no significant main effects or interactions among the three measures of postural stability scores in the three groups (p>0.05). The WDS Forward group means ranged from 10.4 �� 1.8 to 13.5 �� 1.2 while the WDS Backward means ranged from 6.4 �� 1.1 to 7.7 �� 3.0, but were not different among the groups (p>0.05). We concluded that a single bout of 12 soccer headers approximating the number of headers performed during a typical NCAA Division I-A soccer practice did not produce significant deficits in postural stability, memory, or concentration. While our findings are similar to several recent studies, we suggest that more sensitive measurement tools such as ImPACT neurocognitive testing and functional magnetic resonance imaging be utilized to determine the effects of acute as well as chronic exposure to headers in soccer players. / Graduation date: 2003

published_or_final_version / Sports Science / Master / Master of Science in Sports Science

Abstract Soccer is a multifaceted sport requiring game-specific intelligence and particular physiological and physical characteristics for success. Despite the wide variety of contributing factors, it has been reported that youth soccer players who are larger in size, more mature, and have superior aerobic power are favoured during team selection. The current investigation examined aerobic power and anthropometric size differences between selected and not selected elite youth soccer players; values were also compared between playing position and sexes. Twenty-three elite soccer players, 10 males and 13 females, with an average age of 14 years were recruited for the study; participants performed a graded treadmill test to exhaustion and a sport participation questionnaire. Aerobic power results from the treadmill test were expressed in absolute (l/min) and relative terms, to body mass and fat free mass (ml/kg/min & ml/kg FFM/min); values were compared between selection status, playing position and sex. No significant differences were detected for any measure of aerobic power or anthropometric size between selected and not selected athletes when sexes were combined or separated (p>0.05); males had significantly higher aerobic power levels compared to females despite scaling method (p<0.05). In females, goalkeepers had a significantly lower absolute aerobic power (p<0.05), differences were not detected when expressed relative to body mass or fat free mass (p>0.05). Males showed no significant difference between playing positions in any measurement of aerobic power (p>0.05). It appears as though Saskatchewan coaches view attributes, other than physical size and aerobic fitness, as more beneficial for team success at this level. Results are encouraging as they suggest that size and aerobic power may not be the main influencing criteria for achieving success on an elite youth Saskatchewan soccer team.

While professional football clubs are facing increasing pressures to balance their business with social goals, an important unanswered question is whether these rather stakeholder-oriented organizations understand the nature and impact of corporate and social responsibility (CSR). Research has yet provided little information on how football clubs perceive and react to CSR. This thesis examines how three important aspects of CSR (communication, development and integration with other strategies) evolve across different football clubs and cultures. Because specific clubs may have unique social responsibilities attributed to them, the current study is not limited to one industry and one particular club / segment. It rather contains three complementary case studies and explores CSR activities associated with an overall 38 professional football clubs residing in a pan-European, national (league), and organizational context respectively. Specifically, the primary international analysis reveals that while most football clubs communicate various CSR efforts, these activities primarily refer to ten distinct areas. These areas, as well as prior literature, served as the framework for the development of an international football CSR typology. In addition, qualitative results gathered from a second study across football clubs from the same national context sought to determine the moderating role of national business system characteristics (i.e. legislations, socio-political drivers, internal and external barriers, and phases of CSR development). The results of a third study generally supported the aforementioned contentions providing additional information on the strategic benefits more integrative CSR can offer. Synthesizing outcomes and findings from three complementary studies, this thesis develops a conceptual model that brings together the two different views of the modern CSR debate. This conception theorises CSR as being a legally, socially and organizationally constructed umbrella positioned over the corporate organization. On one hand, CSR is an umbrella protection to cover up corporate irresponsibility, window-dress illegitimate actions, and distract public attention from sensitive business issues. On the other hand, more collaborative, planned, participative and long-term involvement to CSR activity can turn the umbrella model upside down and provide a collector of public support, or a battery where public benevolence can be stored and reused for future purposes. These findings are discussed in the context of contributions to the field of sport management and marketing, practitioners within the football industry, and scholars pursuing a research agenda in the area of CSR and sports. Future research suggestions are forwarded.

Several studies conducted on home advantage in sport have focused on game location and performance outcome. The purpose of this study was to examine three components of home advantage, such as the effect that game location has on self-efficacy, a critical psychological state, and assertive play, a critical behavioral state. Participants (N = 21) from one mid-sized, midwest, Division I soccer program completed the Modified State Sport-Confidence Inventory (MSSCI) prior to six home conference games and six away conference games. In addition, all 12-conference games were observed and coded according to four assertive behaviors of soccer players. Data were analyzed using a permutation test and Spearman's Rho with a level of significance set at .05. Results indicated there was no significant difference in self-efficacy between home and away games and no significant difference in assertive play between home and away games. No significance relationship was found for self-efficacy and assertive play. Possible limitations along with recommendations for the future are discussed. / School of Physical Education

While football is legitimately regarded as the ultimate global game, its significance to Scotland is even more exaggerated, in historical, social and cultural terms. Scots were at the forefront of 'globalising' the sport, teaching the English and other foreigners to play a highly technical and 'passing' game, only to abandon this later with characteristic complacency. Within Scotland, 'the only game' has provided its inhabitants with a cultural obsession, in which sectarian, regional and national animosities and inequalities may be contested and unsatisfactorily resolved. Consequently, the Scots are credited with gifting the world the phenomenon of 'football hooliganism', primarily at domestic club level, although the authorities latterly claim to have 'solved' such fan disorder. Upon the national stage, some argue football's social and political impacts have been markedly more pernicious, in being a dubious receptacle for the tartan-coated 'sub-nationalism' of a nation still denied a protective State. Therefore, this thesis examines the culture of these two particular, polarised categories of Scottish football fans, namely the contemporary hooligans (the 'soccer casuals') and the national team's supporters (the carnival or ambassadorial 'Tartan Army'). The thesis draws heavily upon qualitative fieldwork with these supporter groups, undertaken over the course of five years (1990-1994). To achieve this, the thesis is divided into three parts. The first part contextualises the discussion, by looking at previous explanations of football hooliganism and the extent to which these fit with initial evidence from the opposing, Scottish fan cultures. The second and third parts then introduce sustained fieldwork and analyses of these supporter groups.

Thesis (M.A.)--San Jose State University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-67). Also available online (PDF file) by a subscription to the set or by purchasing the individual file.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 102). Also available online (PDF file) by a subscription to the set or by purchasing the individual file.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-119). Also available online (PDF file) by a subscription to the set or by purchasing the individual file.

Thesis (M.A.)--San Jose State University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-67).