FIFA 11+
What is FIFA 11+?
11+ is a complete warm-up program to reduce injuries among male and female football players aged 14 years and older. Teams that performed 11+ at least twice a week had 30 – 50% less injured players.
Keeping Your Players Healthy
Here is a link to a FIFA document that presents a comprehensive warm-up program aimed at keeping your players healthy and ready to play:
FIFA has also created a program for preventing injuries in children
As with the FIFA 11+ program, the kids’ version (age range: 7-12) was designed by a panel of international experts. There is a focus on:
- Spatial orientation, anticipation, and attention particularly while dual-tasking (to avoid unintended contact with other players or objects)
- Body stability and movement coordination (more general than specific)
- Learning appropriate fall techniques (to minimize the consequences of unavoidable falls)
A large randomized trial in four European countries with more than 4,000 kids (age range: 7-12) has shown an impressive injury reduction of about 50% in those teams practicing the FIFA 11+ Kids as a warm-up. Match injuries were reduced by 31%, training injuries by 40%, lower extremity injuries by 41%, overall non-contact injuries by 55% and severe injuries by 56%. These findings reflect similar preventive effects of the FIFA 11+ program in older youth male and female football players, and support the implementation of injury prevention via the FIFA 11+ in children playing football.