Activity profile and physical demands of football referees and assistant referees in international games

Abstract

Time-motion analyses and physiological measurements were performed to investigate the physiological demands of football referees (n = 15) and assistant referees (n = 15) in international games and to examine whether high-intensity running (HIR) correlates to the referees' ability to keep up with play. Total distance covered (10.27 +/- 0.90 vs. 6.76 +/- 0.83 km) and HIR (1.92 +/- 0.58 vs. 0.97 +/- 0.22 km) was higher (P < 0.05) for referees than assistant referees, while sprinting distance was not different. Referees covered 0.89 +/- 0.37 km by backwards running and assistant referees covered 1.54 +/- 0.66 km by sideways running. Mean heart rate was higher (P < 0.05) for referees than assistant referees (150 +/- 3 vs. 123 +/- 3 b.p.m.), whereas blood lactate was not different. Backwards/sideways running decreased (P < 0.05) from the first to the last 15-min period for referees (49%) and assistant referees (42%), whereas HIR was unaltered. HIR was inversely correlated with the five highest distances from infringements in both halves (r = -0.60 and -0.58, P < 0.05). In conclusion, international match officials carry out an important amount of HIR throughout games, while low-intensity and unorthodox running activities are reduced during games. Referees performing the most high-intensity work are better to keep up with play. The match activities differ significantly between referees and assistant referees, which should be considered in training and testing procedures.

Kinematic and physiological analysis of the performance of the referee football and its relationship with decision making

“…The first studies determined that referees had an average of 95% of the HRmax (Caterall et al, 1993). As time has gone past until today this percentage has lowered to the 85-95% region, as described by the following studies (Weston, Helsen, MacMahon and Kirkendall, 2004;Helsen and Bultnick, 2004;Krustrup et al, 2009;), also being higher in the first half than the second half , like in this study ). To achieve these results intermittent methods have been used, with training frequencies higher than 85% of the HRmax (Krustup and Bangsbo, 2001; Weston et al, 2004).…”

“…With the results obtained from this research, we have been able to determine that both referees and assistant referees should be considered as independent groups when it comes to planning training sessions for official competition matches (Mallo, 2006;Krustrup et al, 2009;). For this we´ve decided to analyze, step by step, every possible cinematic and physiological variable that affects the physical performance of referees and assistant referees in the games studied in this investigation.…”

Physical and Decision-Making Demands of Australian Football Umpires During Competitive Matches

“…It would be expected that with increasing physical fatigue, umpires are unable to maintain the required intensity to position themselves correctly around play (11,12) and as a result, are more likely to incorrectly adjudicate. As the majority of match play is spent in the middle of the ground, it was expected that the mid-zone umpire would make the highest number of decisions whilst undertaking the highest relative physical demands.…”

Analysis on the external training load of players in small sided and friendly football games

“…This GPS technology has been previously validated and reported to be reliable for monitoring movements and activities of different intensities for soccer players (Boyd et al, 2011b;Castellano, Casamichana, Calleja-González, San Román, & Ostojic, 2011b;. Similar to previous studies (Casamichana et al, 2014;Castellano et al, 2013;Krustrup et al, 2009) …”