Football as Medicine
Prescribing Football for Global Health Promotion
Critical Research in Football Series

It is beyond dispute that physical activity is good for us, but what are the benefits, challenges and impacts of sport on health? This is the first book to focus on football in the context of health from individual, public and population-level perspectives.

Football as Medicine examines the effects of football training on the three main types of fitness (cardiovascular, metabolic and musculoskeletal) and on specific target populations (for example, children, type 2 diabetes patients, cancer patients, people with mental health conditions, the socially deprived and older people). It discusses the significance of football for public health and assesses the efficacy of football interventions by clubs and community sport development programs.

With its multi-disciplinary approach, this is a valuable resource for students, researchers and practitioners working in physical activity and health, public health, health promotion and medicine, as well as football and sport business management, sport and exercise science, and the sociology of sport.

Introduction: Football as Medicine, 1. Football as medicine against cardiovascular disease, 2. Football as medicine against type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, 3. Football for promotion of bone health across lifespan, 4. Football as rehabilitation for cancer patients, 5. Football as broad-spectrum prevention for children and adolescents, football club activity and school sport interventions, 6. Football for homeless and socially deprived people, 7. Football and healthy ageing, 8. Motivational aspects of football as medicine, 9. Fitness and health effects of other team sports: "Recreational team sports – the motivational medicine", 10. Football at the workplace, 11. The implementation of Football Fitness, 12. Injury prevention in Football: The 11+ Programme, 13. Watching Football as medicine: Promoting health at the football stadium, 14. Smartphone fitness apps and football fans: A case study of Fan Fit, 15. Football and mental health, 16. Tobacco-free Stadia: A case study at the 2016 UEFA European Championships in France, 17. A closing comment on the policy and politics of implementing football as medicine: The English context

Peter Krustrup is Professor of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Southern Denmark, Honorary Visiting Professor of Exeter University, UK, and Guest Professor at Shanghai University of Sport, China. His research interests include the fitness and health effects of football and other sports, physical-tactical-technical match analyses, and fatigue, recovery, training and testing in elite football. He is a UEFA Pro-Licensed football coach and Fitness Coach for the Danish Women’s national team. He is also the leader of a Football is Medicine group of 225 researchers in more than 20 countries.

Daniel Parnell is Senior Lecturer in Sport Business at the University of Liverpool Management School, UK. His research interests lie in sport business management and policy, and he has a growing interest in examining social and economic networks in sport. Dan is co-Founder and Editor of The Football Collective, a global network of football scholars. He serves as co-Editor-in-Chief of Managing Sport and Leisure and is co-Editor of the Routledge book series 'Critical Research in Football'. He also co-edited the Routledge Handbook of Football Business and Management.