Associations Between Match-Play Characteristics and Environmental Temperatures in 4 Professional Football Leagues

Abstract

This study investigated the association between environmental temperature and match‐play characteristics (shooting, passing, dribbling and defending) in four professional football leagues. Twenty‐seven performance indicators (PI's) were collated from 1585 matches from the German Bundesliga 1 and 2, Spanish La Liga and Australian A‐League. Environmental data were obtained for dry‐bulb temperature (T) and wet‐bulb globe temperature (WBGT) retrospectively from public sources. For each league, linear regressions were used to determine relationships between PI's and T and WBGT and linear mixed models were used to determine those associations across all four leagues. Individual leagues showed varying associations between a collection of PI's and environmental measures. When combining the four leagues' match data, 8 of the 17 investigated pa rameters were associated with T and WBGT (p < 0.002). Passes, especially short passes, were reduced in higher T (−2.3 [−3.1 to −1.5] and p < 0.001) and WBGT (−3.1 [−4.0 to −2.1] and p < 0.001), alongside an increase in the success rate of passes (0.06 [0.02–0.09] and p ≤ 0.001). The number of passes into the opponent's final third was reduced for both T (−0.18 [−0.25 to −0.05] and p = 0.001) and WBGT (−0.17 [−0.28 to−0.05] and p = 0.002), but the number of key passes leading to a shot or goal was not associated with T or WBGT (p ≥ 0.67). The number of touches, take‐ons and turnovers were reduced in higher T and WBGT (all p < 0.001). Accordingly, in higher heat stress, match actions, especially those performed at high volumes, are reduced. Therefore, teams should expect a possibly altered match play and may consider adapting tactical or heat‐mitigating strategies to counter these effects.