The first intellectual output of the project involves the study of young football players’ beliefs about doping and anti-doping education and make recommendations as to what strategies football authorities need to adopt to better educate athletes about doping.
Following completion of the European data gathering process a comprehensive Review Report will be finalised and published and will be freely available to download to interested individuals and organizations. The deadline for Survey completion is 30th September 2019.
The survey was completed by 733 respondents from Norway, Greece, Lithuania Bulgaria and the UK.
Results showed that 72% were male and 75% of the players were 21 years and younger. They spent a lot of time on grassroots football and the overwhelming majority did not earn any money on their football. They used a variety of legal substances, and almost none had taken or even considered taking illegal substances of any kind. The moral stance against doping was strong, but there was slightly more who were positive to doping when it comes to physical improvement.
Few of the players had received any anti-doping education and they were not particularly interested in getting any. If they were to receive such education, the whole club or team should be involved with online education and it should be brief. The health risks and the anti-doping regulations were the top two topics.
For further information contact Dr Henrik Lunde, Project Coordinator from here.