Did football players avoid physical interaction in the games after covid-19?

Abstract

COVID-19 has been affecting all components of our daily routines since December 2019. One of the affected industries from COVID-19 based prevention measurements is football. Most of the leagues stopped temporarily and then re-started without spectators which caused important economic loss in this industry. The aim of this paper was to investigate if the players avoided physical interactions from their opponents after the leagues re-started. The data covers 6 European football leagues with 5689 matches from the seasons in the years of 2018-2021. The examined parameters in the study were foul, challenge, air challenge, tackle, number of possessions, ball possession time and average time of possession. The results showed that the players might have been avoided physical interactions to protect themselves from a possible contagion. Providing more hygiene conditions and also awareness studies are needed to prevent possible negative effects of COVID-19 on the football industry.

Keywords

• covid-19
• player performance football
• football
• physical interaction
• european leagues