ArticleBritish journal of sports medicine2022
Risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission from on-field player contacts in amateur, youth and professional football (soccer).
Article in British journal of sports medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Causes of COVID-19 Outbreaks During Sports and Exercise: A Systematic Review.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2025Pooled it
- Artificial Intelligence in Sub-Elite Youth Football Players: Predicting Recovery Through Machine Learning Integration of Physical, Technical, Tactical and Maturational Data.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Impact of COVID-19 on football attacking players' match technical performance: a longitudinal study.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Review
- Common Sports Infectious Disease.HSS journal : the musculoskeletal journal of Hospital for Special Surgery · 2023Review
- Genomic Epidemiology of a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Outbreak in a US Major League Soccer Club: Was It Travel Related?Open forum infectious diseases · 2023Article
- How Different Predominant SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern Affected Clinical Patterns and Performances of Infected Professional Players during Two Soccer Seasons: An Observational Study from Split, Croatia.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Observational
- Injury Incidence Increases after COVID-19 Infection: A Case Study with a Male Professional Football Team.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- COVID-19 in European Soccer: A Public 2-Year Comparison of COVID-19 Case Management and Case Characteristics between the 1st Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A and the Premier League.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- The Impact of Sport Activity Shut down during the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults: Was It Worthwhile?International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- COVID-19 Infection among Elite Football Players: A Nationwide Prospective Cohort Study.Vaccines · 2022Article
- A video-based analysis of situations bearing the risk of respiratory disease transmission during football matches.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Risk assessment and implementation of risk reduction measures is not associated with increased transmission of SARS-CoV-2 compared with standard isolation at professional golf events.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo investigate the risk of transmission among potentially infectious SARS-CoV-2-positive football players while participating in training or matches at amateur, youth and professional levels.
methodsBetween August 2020 and March 2021, football players who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and participated in matches or training during the period of potential contagiousness were identified through media search (professional level) and a nationwide registry in Germany (amateur and youth level) to determine symptoms, source of infection and hygiene measures adopted. The definition of potentially infectious players was based on the time of a positive PCR testing and symptom onset. Transmission-relevant contacts on the pitch were evaluated through doubly reviewed video analysis.
resultsOut of 1247 identified football matches and training sessions (1071 amateur and youth level, 176 professional level), 104 cases (38 training sessions, 66 matches) with 165 potentially infectious players were detected. Follow-up PCR testing at the professional level (44 cases) revealed no transmission. At the amateur and youth level, the combination of partial PCR testing (31 of 60 cases) and symptom monitoring within 14 days post-exposure (46 of 60 cases) identified 2 of 60 matches in which follow-up infections occurred that were attributed to non-football activities. This is consistent with the video analysis of 21 matches demonstrating frontal contacts were <1 per player-hour (88%, 30 of 34 players), each lasting no longer than 3 s.
conclusionOn-field transmission risk of SARS-CoV-2 in football is very low. Sources of infections in football players are most likely not related to activities on the pitch.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.