Vol. 5, Issue 1, Part A (2023)

Soccer players most frequently suffer from severe leg injuries, particularly effecting the knee. Soccer players worldwide, of all ages, genders, and levels of expertise, frequently encounter with knee injuries. These injuries have a negative influence on physical activity and lost workdays, as well as high medical expenses.
Therefore, it is imperative to assess the effectiveness of various injury prevention programs in lowering the number of knee injuries related to soccer. The main aim of this study is to assess the potential effects of Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) 11+ injury prevention program in reducing the non-specific knee injuries in soccer players.
Methodology: A systematic search was conducted in the PubMed, PubMed Central, Cochrane central library, Ovid Medline, Worldwide science (Organization), and APA Psycnet databases from February 2002 to February 2022. A total of 65,232 records were in databases, with 98 records from organizations, and after removing duplicate entries and completing the screening procedure, this meta-analysis included three cluster randomized control trials with 3,833 participants that matched our inclusion criteria. The major criteria for inclusion and exclusion were randomized control trials that used the FIFA 11 + injury prevention program for not less than 6 months and reported the overall incidence rate of knee injuries without addressing individual knee injuries.
Results: The FIFA11+ injury prevention program was found to be effective based on total injuries per 1000 hours of exposure, according to pooled statistics. There was significant statistical reduction in knee injury risk ratio (IRR) of 0.477 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.367- 0621 p=0.000). Teams using FIFA 11+ injury prevention program demonstrated up to 47% of reduction in knee injuries as compared to the control group which performed usual warm up exercises as intervention.
Conclusion: This comprehensive review and meta-analysis show how effective the FIFA 11+ injury prevention program is at preventing non- specific knee injuries in soccer players. This protocol is registered in international prospective register of systematic reviews PROSPERO (CRD42022298748).