Original research

International Journal of Sports Science

& Coaching
Players at home: Physical activity and 0(0) 1–11
! The Author(s) 2021
quality of life in 12–17 years-old football Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
(soccer) players during the Covid-19 DOI: 10.1177/17479541211041703
journals.sagepub.com/home/spo

lockdown

Matteo Zago1,2 , Nicola Lovecchio3 and Manuela Galli2,4

Abstract
Background: Aggressive preventive actions were required to face the Covid-19 outbreak. However, from March 2020
on, many healthy youth football players have seen their sporting activities disrupted by the restrictions on outdoor
exercise.
This study describes physical activity and quality of life during April 2020 lockdown of young people participating in
organized football.
Methods: 1163 young football players aged 12–17 years (185 girls) completed a web-based questionnaire including the
Youth Physical Activity and the Youth Quality of Life-Short Form Questionnaires; information on lifestyle and football-
specific activity were also collected. Differences according to sex, urban/rural context and
elite/non-
elite club level were
tested using a 2
2
2 MANOVA (age considered as a covariate).
Results: We found that: (i) on average, exposure to football accounted for 3.2 hours/week, was higher in
elite clubs and
changed in nature, being mainly performed individually; 19% of participants practiced football <1 hour/week; (ii) only
56% of the participants reported 7 or more hours/week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, which decreased with
age and changed according to the geographical context; (iii) perceived quality of life was lower in youth playing for non-
elite clubs and in older girls; (iv) coaches, rather that official initiatives, were the primary source of football exercises
practiced at home.
Conclusion: A status of limited physical activity emerged; this might lead to deconditioning and susceptibility to injuries
when football could restart. Governing bodies, football Associations and clubs could exploit these results to take
informed decisions and support evidence-based interventions during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Keywords
Adolescence, health, pandemic, youth sport

Introduction
Reviewers: Britt Brewer (Springfield College, MA, USA)
“Football fights Covid-19” is the name of the FIFA
Eszter Füzeki (Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany)
campaigna attempting to assist and educate practi-
tioners across the world who are facing the SARS- 1
Dipartimento di Meccanica, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
2
CoV-2 pandemic. Developed together with the World E4Sport Lab, Politecnico di Milano, Lecco, Italy
3
Dipartimento di Scienze Umane e Sociali, Università degli Studi di
Health Organization (WHO), this program issues a
Bergamo, Lombardia, Italy
series of recommendations (fitness and skill tips, enter- 4
Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di
tainment, and health advices) for managing lockdowns Milano, Italy
and isolation. While ‘aggressive’ preventive and medi-
Corresponding author:
cal actions promoted by governments and health Matteo Zago, Dipartimento di Meccanica, via La Masa 1,
authorities were necessary at the Covid-19 outbreak, Milano 20156, Italy.
tackling the adverse psychopathological consequences Email: matteo2.zago@polimi.it
2 International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching 0(0)
of prolonged self-quarantine periods is also critical for
the population not affected by Covid-19.
Among them, many healthy youth football players
have inevitably seen their sporting routine disrupted by
the restrictions on outdoor exercise.1,2 Prolonged home
stay – albeit a safety measure to limit the pathogen
spread – poses urgent threats to the well-being of indi-
viduals. Low levels of physical activity (PA) and sed-
entary behaviours can produce negative outcomes on
the mental and physical health, and in turn on the qual-
ity of life of many young people.
There is no question that participating in organized
sports, and football therein, has several beneficial
effects for children and adolescents in terms of body
composition, cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness,
bone strength, and psychosocial health.3–5 Current
guidelines suggest that children and youth should par-
ticipate in at least 60 minutes per day of moderate to
vigorous PA (MVPA), that should ‘be developmentally
appropriate and enjoyable, and involve a variety of
activities’.6–8 Conversely, withdrawal from daily exer-
cise has adverse effects on the ability to cope with ill-
ness in general,9 as regular exercise training is an
adjuvant for the immune system function, lowering
rates in infections for viral and bacterial diseases.10
Physical inactivity is also associated with psychological
complications that damages quality of life9: quarantine
periods potentially add further stressors as frustration,
boredom, confusion and infection fear, that can have
long-lasting sequelae.11
Besides hypothesizing a marked decrease in PA,
accurate data are required (i) to evaluate the magnitude
of physical (in)activity (including discipline-specific
exercises) in young soccer players during forced home-
stay, and (ii) the extent to which WHO guidelines are
fulfilled. Thus, the current research aims at describing
the physical activity, quality of life and sports-related
habits during lockdown of young people who used to
play organized football; in doing so, factors as age, sex,
environment and competitive level were considered in
the analysis, as they could potentially impact on the
extent to which children and adolescent enrol in phys-
ical activities and perceive their life quality.12,13 In
addition, the source of information concerning physical
activities at home is investigated.
As we face unprecedented levels of uncertainty,
quantitative information about the levels of physical
activity, sedentary behaviours, and quality of life in
young players are required by all the stakeholders (gov-
erning and education bodies, clubs, coaching staff) to
take decisions and support evidence-based interven-
tions during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, tailored
on the specific requirements of specific sex, level and
age groups.
Methods
Experimental design and procedures
This is a questionnaire-based observational cross-
sectional study. The questionnaire was implemented
on the Typeform platform (typeform.com, Barcelona,
Spain). Participation was on a voluntary basis and
totally anonymous. The study was approved by the
Ethics Committee of the Polytechnic University of
Milan (protocol n. 6/2020, issued April 2nd, 2020)
and met the current ethical standards in Sport and
Exercise Science.
Communication about research was shared with
professional, semi-professional and recreational clubs’
representatives across the Country. After written
detailed explanation of the aims and benefits of the
survey, from April 2 to May 3, 2020 they formally
invited parents/guardians of youth soccer players to
ask their children to complete a web-based form.
Clubs and the Italian Football Federation were given
access to group data anytime for surveillance and mon-
itoring reasons.
Participants
Girls and boys aged 12–17 years who were playing
organized football before lockdown at any competitive
level were included if: they reported no history of severe
injuries (>28 days of absence for the game) in the six
months preceding the survey; they had been living in an
isolation regimen (i.e., home stay) for at least two
weeks at the time of questionnaire completion. In the
following, the term ‘youth’ will be used to broadly
define the children and adolescents involved in this
report.7
Questionnaire structure
A five-sections questionnaire was assembled; an over-
view of the form structure is reported in Figure 1, while
the full list of questions is provided in Supplementary
File, Table 1. Key design criteria were that the whole
questionnaire had to be completed in around
10 minutes14 (completion time was recorded), and had
to include (without being limited to) validated
instruments.
Section I included 11 questions about general dem-
ographics (sex, age) and study-specific environmental
features, e.g., the number of people living at home,
facilities as courtyard or terrace, competitive level,
games and training sessions per week before lockdown,
town/city. The population threshold of 10 000 inhab-
itants was used to separate urban from rural areas.15
Section II corresponded to the Youth Physical
Activity Questionnaire (YPAQ).16 The YPAQ collects
Zago et al. 3

Figure 1. structure of the “Players at home” questionnaire, reporting sections, topics and example questions.
4 International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching 0(0)

Table 1. Responses summary about the first, fourth and fifth sections of the questionnaire, stratified by sex. Data are presented as
absolute and relative frequencies (categorical variables) or means and standard deviations (numerical variables).

Girls (n ¼ 185) Boys (n ¼ 978) Total (n ¼ 1163)

Item Variable or category count or mean % or SD count or mean % or SD count or mean % or SD

Environmental features
Geographical context Urban 117 63% 718 73% 834 72%
Rural 68 37% 260 27% 329 28%
Club level Elite 141 76% 159 16% 300 26%
Non-elite 44 24% 819 84% 863 84%

Football at home
Football drills source App/online programs 13 7% 100 10% 113 10%
On my own 79 43% 441 45% 520 45%
Parents/friends 32 17% 157 16% 189 16%
Coach/staff 148 80%a 531 55% 679 59%
Videos on the web 50 27% 203 21% 253 22%
Social contacts With mates (n./wk) 3.4 2.7 2.8 2.4 2.9 2.5
With coach (n./wk) 2.5 2.6 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8

Sleeping habits
Sleeping hours/night Week 8.9 1.1 8.8 1.1 8.8 1.1
Weekend 10.1 1.0 9.9 1.0 10.0 1.0
Napping hours/day Week 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.4
Weekend 0.2 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.2 0.3
h/wk: hours per week; MV: moderate to vigorous physical activity.
a
Significant difference in proportions between girls and boys (p < 0.001).

information about the frequency and duration of phys-
ical and sedentary/leisure activities over the past seven
days. With respect to the original form, no data on
school-based activities (travelling, physical education)
was collected, to comply with the actual context.17 We
also removed the distinction between weekday/week-
end activities and added two questions regarding foot-
ball practice performed with and/or without mates. The
YPAQ previously showed good reliability (intra-class
correlation coefficient: 0.64–0.9216)
Section III was the Youth Quality of Life
Instrument – Short Form (YQoL-SF), a generic self-
administered tool for surveillance in adolescent
(11–18 years) populations.18,19 The YQoL-SF was
chosen as it includes 15 perceptual items measuring
sense of self, social relationships, environment and gen-
eral quality of life. In particular, three questions
belonged to the choice and control domain, seven to
the community inclusion domain and five to holistic
health and functioning. Each item is given a score rang-
ing from 0 (not at all) to 10 (a great deal or completely).
Reliability and internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha)
for the YQoL-SF exceeded 0.80 for all domains and for
total perceptual score.18
Section IV included three additional custom ques-
tions, designed for this specific study and concerning
football at home, detailing the interactions (number of
calls/videocalls per week) with teammates and coaches
and the source of practiced football exercise (parents,
coaches, online programs, etc.). Section V included six
questions on sleep and napping habits, inspired by the
PAQ-A (Physical Activity Questionnaire for
Adolescents).20
Data and statistical analysis
Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS (version
25.0, IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Data are presented as
absolute (percentage) frequencies or mean and stan-
dard deviation (SD), where appropriate, stratified by
sex, urban/rural context and club level (elite/non-elite).
YPAQ activities were associated with their correspond-
ing Metabolic Equivalent of Task (MET) according to
reference tables.21 We then computed time (hours/
week) spent in sedentary (1.0–1.5 METs), light-
intensity (1.6–2.9 MET), moderate (3.0–5.9 METs)
and vigorous physical activities (>6 METs); moderate
and vigorous activities (MVPA) were subsequently
pooled.
Dependent variables were therefore the amount of
hours/week spent in MVPA, light PA, sedentary activ-
ities, football-specific activities and other sports.
After checking that the data did not contain outliers,
were multivariate normally distributed and that the
covariance matrices of each group were homogeneous,
Zago et al.
differences according to sex, urban/rural context and

elite/non-
elite club level were tested using a 2
2
2
Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA). The
‘age’ factor was considered as a covariate, and the cor-
responding regression lines were reported separately
for girls and boys. Sex
age interaction was considered
within the statistical model. The same MANOVA test
was applied to variables related to quality of life,
namely the YQoL-SF score, and the sub-scores of its
domains (choice and control, community inclusion,
holistic health), as well as to the number of social con-
tacts/week with teammates and coaches.
Measures of effect size were provided as partial eta-
squared (g2) a value of 0.01 was considered as small
effect, 0.06 medium effect and 0.14 large effect.22
Pearson correlation was computed between the
amount of MVPA and total YQoL-SF score.
Figure 2. CONSORT diagram depicting the flow of participants.
Figure 3. participants demographics (n ¼ 1163) stratified by age and sex (left), and geographical distribution of answers (right, colour
saturation proportional to the number of responses from each region).
5
Sex and club level differences regarding the source of
football exercises were tested using two-tailed z-tests
for proportions.
A significance level of a ¼ 5% was implemented
throughout.
Results
A total of 1412 young players were contacted
(Figure 2). Of them, 1328 were eligible for this study:
1163 (88%, 185 girls and 978 boys) completed the ques-
tionnaire in 10:44 minutes after 5.7 (SD: 1.9) weeks of
lockdown. Figure 3 shows the distribution of partici-
pants stratified by age, sex and region. Both boys and
girls were taking part in 3.0 (0.7) training sessions and
1.2 (0.3) games per week before the activity suspension.
Table 1 reports urban/rural context and club level
6 International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching 0(0)

distribution. Participants lived on average with other 4
(1) people at home; 73% (n ¼ 856) of them could dis-
pose of a private yard/courtyard, 61% (n ¼ 708) of a
terrace/balcony; 7% (n ¼ 79) reported to lack both ter-
race/balcony and yard. Self-reported sleeping hours
were 8.8 (1.1) hours/night during the week and 10.0
(1.0) hours/night in the weekend; a large fraction of
the participants declared to go to bed at or after 12
PM, n ¼ 557 (49%) during the week and n ¼ 782
(67%) during the weekend.
Football and physical activity
Figures 4 and 5 depict the effects of age, sex, club level
and context on YPAQ and YQoL-SF outcomes.
MVPA accounted on average for 8.8 (5.8) hours/week,

Figure 4. Sex and age effects on Physical Activity and quality of life score (YQoL-SF). Data as mean and standard deviations.
Statistically significant MANOVA factors are reported. Regression lines were computed using the full data point cloud.

Figure 5. Club level and urban/rural context effects on Physical Activity and quality of life score (YQoL-SF). Data as mean and
standard deviations. *significant difference between urban and rural contexts, p < 0.05; #: significant difference between elite and non-
elite players, p < 0.05.
Zago et al.
with no statistical differences between sexes (F ¼ 0.205,
p ¼ 0.651, low effect), but it was significantly higher
in
elite clubs (F ¼ 14.444, p < 0.001, low effect), and
lower in older participants (F ¼ 4.928, p ¼ 0.027,
low effect). Players registered for
elite clubs
reported approximately 1.5 more hours/week of
football-specific activity than their counterparts play-
ing for non-
elite clubs (F ¼ 13.307, p ¼ 0.001, low
effect).
The amount of football-specific activity was lower in
older players (F ¼ 23.240, p < 0.001, medium effect),
from about 4 (12 years) to 2 (17 years) hours/week.
Individual football activity was on average 2.0 (1.5)
hours/week, while football time with others accounted
for 1.3 (1.4) hours/week; 19% (n ¼ 217) of participants
reported to play football less than 1 hour/week or not
at all. Overall, boys and girls performed other sporting
activities for 2.8 (3.0) hours/week and gymnastics, core
or stretching exercises for 1.4 (1.3) hours/week (detailed
activity profiling is available as Supplementary File).
Time spent in light PA accounted for 2.2 hours/week,
with a large variability and no sex, level or context dif-
ference (SD: 3.1 hours/week, p > 0.05, low effects).
While also displaying high variability (mean: 53.4,
SD: 29.4 hour/week), time spent in sedentary activities
significantly increased in both older girls and boys
(F ¼ 22.806, p < 0.001, medium effect), irrespectively
of club level (F ¼ 0.010, p ¼ 0.982, low effect).
Participants living in rural, with respect to urban
context, reported more time (on average þ1.5 hour/
week) spent in MVPA (F ¼ 35.795, p < 0.001, medium
effect), football-specific activities (þ1 hour/week,
F ¼ 11.457, p < 0.001, low-to-medium effect), and
lower time spent in sedentary activities (5 hour/
week, F ¼ 4.615, p ¼ 0.032, low effect).
No significant sex
club level interaction was found
for light, sedentary and other sports activities (p > 0.05,
low effect).
Quality of life
Global YQoL-SF score was 79 (11); while the YQoL-
SF score did not change with age in boys, it significant-
ly dropped by around 10 points in girls from 12 to
17 years (sex factor: F ¼ 5.794 and p ¼ 0.016; age
factor: F ¼ 17.521 and p < 0.001; sex
age interaction:
F ¼ 8.862 and p ¼ 0.003; effect size ranging from low to
medium). Interestingly, quality of life score was higher
in participants playing for
elite clubs (F ¼ 12.307,
p < 0.001, low-to-medium effect); no significant sex

club level interaction was found.
Analogous statistical results were observed for the
YQoL-SF subdomains, except for the health construct
that did not differ between sexes (F ¼ 2.165, p ¼ 0.002,
low effect). A low yet significant positive correlation
7
(r ¼ 0.203, p < 0.001) was found between MVPA and
YQoL-SF score. Detailed statistical outcomes are
available in Supplementary File, Table 2.
Football at home
More than half (n ¼ 679, 59%) of the participants (in
particular girls, z ¼ 5.537, p < 0.001, and those playing
for elite clubs, z ¼ 2.021, p ¼ 0.043) were told about
football drills/exercises by their coaching staff; no dif-
ferences between level or sexes (p > 0.05) were found
for the other sources: 45% invented their own drills,
16% were given exercise from parents or friends, and
just 10% referred to app or online programs.
Girls reported on average more social interactions/
week with their teammates than boys, namely 3.4 (2.7)
vs. 3.1 (2.4) (F ¼ 7.390, p ¼ 0.007, low effect) especially
below 16 years; after, reported contacts remained con-
stant for males and reduced in girls (sex
age interac-
tion: F ¼ 6.569, p ¼ 0.011, low effect). Contact with
coaches/week were comparable across sex, age and
context (p > 0.05, low effects), but were higher in
elite
than in non-
elite clubs (2.2 (2.3) vs. 1.5 (1.7),
F ¼ 11.233, p ¼ 0.001, low effect).
Discussion
The current study provided a picture on the physical
and sport-specific activity, as well as on the quality of
life and football-related habits, of 12–17 years youth
players during Covid-19 lockdown. The main results
were: i) exposure to football practice was 3.2 hours/
week and changed in nature with respect to pre-
lockdown conditions, as it was predominantly per-
formed individually; ii) the amount of moderate to
vigorous physical activity was on average higher than
8.5 hours/week; however, it was lower in older individ-
uals, and only 56% of participants reported 7 or more
hours/week, with differences according to the living
context; iii) perceived quality of life was lower in
youth playing for non-
elite clubs and decreased with
age in girls; iv) coaches were the primary source for
football exercises practiced at home.
Study cohort
According to the latest census of the Italian Football
Federation,b over 749 000 children and adolescents
(incidence: 73%) played organized football in Italy at
the time of the survey. Of them, 13 000 were girls
(1.7%). The sample included in this study thus repre-
sented the 0.2% of the whole Italian players popula-
tion. Most of the answers came from northern regions
(see Figure 3), which from February to May 2020 were
the most affected by Covid-19 outbreak (and which are
also the most densely populated, thus hosting a wider
8 International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching 0(0)
number of clubs). In the whole Country, severe self-
quarantine restrictions were applied from March 9 to
May 18, 2020.
Impact on physical activity
The most obvious consequence of isolation measures
was the reduction of football practice. As a reference,
the average three training sessions and one match
reported before activity suspension can be estimated
as much as 5–6 hours/week. The reported value of
3.2 hours/week might appear as only slightly lower
than that provided by previous investigations4 on
European recreational 10–14 years players (3.6–
4.7 hours/week). However, a closer look on results
reveals that over 70% of the participants practiced
football less than 5 hours/week, and that 19% of the
whole sample did not practice any kind of football-
related activity in the previous week.
In addition, the nature of football practice during
lockdown was inevitably different from ordinary col-
lective sessions and games, as it was predominantly
performed in individual form (2 hours/week): although
football training is labelled as a vigorous physical activ-
ity,21 it is unlikely that individual training matched
analogous levels of exercise intensity and specificity.
While we cannot infer comparisons with pre-
lockdown physical activity levels, we observed that
the drop of soccer-specific activity was only partially
balanced by other sports: cycling and running were
practiced as little as 0.6 and 0.8 hours/week, respective-
ly, and gymnastics and stretching exercises for
1.3 hours/week (of note, running was together with
football the only other “vigorous” activity on the list).
These findings, combined with the lack of physical
education classes at school, depicts a scenario of insuf-
ficient physical activity for a large fraction of the par-
ticipants. Almost half of them reported less than the
guideline target of 7 hours/week of MVPA.8 This is
even more evident if we consider that participants
were not a sample of the general population, but they
used to be regularly involved in football practice before
restrictions. The observed cross-sectional reduction of
PA across adolescence further worsens the situation23:
this phenomenon is consistent with literature, reporting
4.2%–5.9% decrease of PA per year,3,24 and was
accompanied by an increase of sedentary activities.
Potentially, this scenario exposes youth players to
several harms. First, the prolonged lack of high-
intensity exercise and resistance training might have
negative effects on cardiorespiratory fitness and body
composition.3,25 Second, poor physical activity and
consequent deconditioning increase the risk of sustain-
ing both acute and overuse sports-related injuries when
returning to sport.7,26
Third, and probably most important: while in youth
there is still limited but growing specific evidence,27,28
in the general population physical activity is recognized
as a potent adjuvant for the immune system, globally
reducing the risk for developing systemic
inflammations.29,30
Factors limiting the decline of physical activity and
football practice
Participants living in a rural area displayed higher gen-
eral PA levels with respect to those from urban areas,
probably due to augmented opportunities to move out-
door. Players who played in
elite clubs also showed a
higher involvement in football activities (1.5 hours/
week more than their peers playing in non-
elite
clubs). This could be due to higher dedication and
sense of responsibility towards training, even when
the fun of gameplay was missing. In this sense, activity
suspension could be a chance to elicit non-technical
qualities like resilience and commitment that are equal-
ly important to talent development.31 Another reason
for the increased activity in
elite clubs’ players could be
a more frequent interaction with coaching staff. In fact,
2/3 of participants reported to perform drills and exer-
cises provided by coaches, who frequently and often
creatively (anecdotal observation) managed to keep
their young players involved in the squad through
video and telephone calls. This further enhances the
educational importance of the coach-athlete relation-
ship,32 whose effectiveness in promoting healthy and
active behaviours was largely higher than institutional
campaigns (e.g., those promoted by FIFA or Italian
FIGC), programs or apps.
Quality of life
Although we were not able to compare the absolute
YQoL-SF scores with analogous populations, it is
worth noticing the higher quality of life reported by
elite clubs’ players, independent of the living context.
Previous research revealed higher life satisfaction in
youth involved in organized football,4 and in people
regularly practicing physical activity5; although we
found a weak positive correlation between hours/week
of MVPA and YQoL-SF score, the underlying phenom-
enon is likely to be highly complex in nature and a
mechanistic link cannot be assumed based on our data.
In adolescents, the ability to engage in recreational,
social and sporting activity is a major determinant of
psychophysical health. In pathological/specific cases,
activity restrictions after injuries or life-modifying con-
ditions can cause depression,9 while isolation has
known psychological effects such as stress, confusion
or anger.11 Our results suggest that this was not the
Zago et al.
case, and this is probably due the fact that we assumed
the sample of this study to include mostly healthy indi-
viduals (while subject-specific psychological screening
was clearly not feasible). Besides PA levels, even under
lockdown restrictions participants could easily main-
tain connection with their teammates, thanks to
mobile applications and social networks (the commu-
nity inclusion domain of YQoL-SF scored nearly
80%). Nevertheless, YQoL-SF scores were lower in
girls, especially during adolescence, perhaps highlight-
ing a higher vulnerability than boys in the current
conditions.
Lastly, a word of warning comes from sleeping
habits. While the overall amount of reported sleeping
hours can be considered acceptable,33 half (weekdays)
and over two thirds (weekend) of the participants
declared to go to bed late at night. This was considered
to have potential negative effects on school perfor-
mance (which continued in distanced learning mode)
and emotional distress34; however, more in-depth anal-
ysis on the sleep-wake cycle are required to draw mean-
ingful conclusions.
Limitations
When interpreting results, one should be aware that
self-reported questionnaires are prone to inaccuracies
(i.e. recall bias) in the measure of frequency, intensity
and duration of young people’s activity,16,20 especially
at the individual level. The estimation of energy expen-
diture would have been highly unreliable and not
completely retrievable for published tables,21 given
that most of the activities were practiced at home or
in private yards rather than in their usual places (pitch,
field, etc.). Still, the included instruments (YPAQ,
YQoL-SF) proved to have good reliability, can provide
meaningful information on the type and context of
performed activities and were the only feasible
method to be used in a large scale-sale survey.35
Habits, PA and perceived quality of life might have
mutated across lockdown weeks, and the cross-
sectional nature of the current study did not allow to
capture such longitudinal changes. Repeating question-
naire administration was practically unfeasible, being
this study temporally constrained by the duration of
government measures.
The proportion of males and females (15.9%) of this
research did not match the actual youth players popu-
lation: we intentionally included relatively more girls,
as previously done by Wold et al. in other European
Countries,4 to enable meaningful comparisons between
sexes.
While other countries in Europe underwent similar
lockdown procedures, caution should be taken to gen-
eralize results. Lifestyle habits, school system and most
9
important specific governments restrictions might have
a substantial impact on the answers.
Practical implications and recommendations
The current study highlighted that coaching staff are a
recognized and valuable source of information for their
players. By leveraging their privileged educational role,
coaches can echo safety strategies suggested by medical
staff to educate players in minimizing potential patho-
gen spread (exercising only without even mild upper
respiratory tract symptoms, avoid crowded places and
adopt careful hygienic measures, follow a balanced diet
and keep taking adequate sleep time10,36) In addition,
during forced homestay, social connection via electron-
ic devices can be exploited by proposing “virtual” tech-
nical challenges between teammates.
Resuming some form of PA may help youth recover
from the stress and anxiety eventually experienced
while in quarantine.1 Notably, football training has
important indirect effects, including the accumulation
of social capital.4 Consistently, the Italian Federation
run a national program called “#restart” that promot-
ed distanced training in Spring-Summer 2020, and a
gradual resumption of teams’ activities in Fall.
Unfortunately, in October 2020 new, strict restrictions
were applied to all youth sport in Italy. A slow opening
is dated January-February 2021, and according to the
pandemic severity it involved sporadic competitions for

elite clubs only (strict safety protocols had to be fol-
lowed) and some form of training sessions for the rest
of the community. From Spring 2021 on, selected
regional competitions and contact training sessions
were unevenly allowed throughout the Country.
Based on the current findings and on the latest
reports, some suggestions could be extrapolated con-
cerning exercise prescription after prolonged suspen-
sion: coaches and staff should be aware that the
immune system is responsive to exercise, but the adap-
tations depend on effort duration and intensity.29
Exercise regimens as heavy-exertion workloads or
high-intensity training without adequate rest are asso-
ciated with transient immunodepression and increase
susceptibility to infection pathogens.10,29 Thus, caution
is mandatory in prescribing prolonged high-intensity
exercise, as in addition players could not be sufficiently
protected from injuries. Conversely, regular engage-
ment in moderate-intensity aerobic training, besides
enhancing cardiometabolic health,8 increases immuno-
surveillance in antipathogen activity of immune system
macrophages29 (e.g., short bouts of 65%–80% of
_ 2,max, as running or bicycling, progressively increas-
VO
ing in frequency and intensity). The restart period
should also carefully focus on injury prevention (e.g.,
balance, core strengthening, motor control and
10
stretching1) and age-appropriate exercises that
strengthen muscle and bone (i.e. stairs climbing,
squats, push-ups, rope jumping, playing tennis or
other hopping activities, ideally 3 days/week1,37)
Conclusion
Covid-19 has been defined as a ‘new challenge for
human beings’38: the life of millions of young players
worldwide has been altered, and the natural desire to
get back to normal football matches and trainings (one
of the highest-scoring question (84%) in the YQoL-SF
form was “I look forward to the future”) should meet
realistic and rigorous considerations. “Football cannot
restart soon” in such a precarious environment.2
However, even if collective sessions and games were
initially discouraged, there is a strong rationale in
exploiting the health benefits of PA and counter the
establishment of the sedentary behaviours that emerged
in the current study. Governing bodies, football asso-
ciations and clubs are encouraged to develop specific
strategies, properly modulating exercise prescriptions
to ensure that youth can engage in targeted (football-
specific) physical activities that could be practiced in a
safe environment.
Availability of data
All data relevant to the study are available at the following
repository: https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/tg8fnwcd7v/1
Contributorship
MZ: study conception and design, data collection and anal-
ysis; initial draft of the paper. NL: interpretation and critical
revision of data. MG: supervision, data interpretation, criti-
cal revision of the study methods and of the subsequent ver-
sions of the paper.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial sup-
port for the research, authorship and/or publication of this
article: The questionnaire was hosted online thanks to the
Typeform “Covid-19 action” supporting three free months
usage of the form platform (https://try.typeform.com/covid-
19/).
The authors have not declared any other specific grant for
this research from any funding agency in the public, commer-
cial or not-for-profit sectors.
ORCID iD
Matteo Zago https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0649-3665
International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching 0(0)
Notes
a. https://www.fifa.com/news/stars-share-their-stay-at-h
ome-tips
b. “Report Calcio 2019”, https://www.figc.it/it/federazione/
federazione-trasparente/reportcalcio/
Supplemental Material
Supplemental material for this article is available online.
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