CONTEXT: Female football [soccer] is becoming an increasingly popular women's team sports discipline around the world. The Women's Football Committee in Polish Football Association (WFC_PFA) has developed a long-term strategic plan to popularize the discipline across the country and enhance girls' participation. On one hand, it is postulated to increase the number of female footballers, and on the other hand it is crucial to decrease the number of girls quitting football prematurely.
OBJECTIVES: To find the reasons for sports career termination among female football players.
DESIGN: cross-sectional with retrospective information about reasons of career termination. SETTING: On-line questionnaire was filled out by on-line access. PARTICIPANTS: Ninety-three former female footballers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: factors leading to career termination.
METHODS: Participants completed the on-line questionnaire. The analysis was performed referring to two groups: "injury group" - in which the injury was the main reason for quitting football, and "other group" - in which the female player stopped playing football due to all other factors.
RESULTS: Thirty percent of former Polish female football players terminated their career due to a long-term treatment for an injury. Over 27 percent (27.7%) females had ended their careers because they were not able to reconcile sports with work/studying. Over 10 percent (10.8%) of former football players reported that becoming a wife and/or mother was the reason for career termination. Losing motivation and interest in sport was reported by 9.2%(n=6) of present study participants who decided to terminate the career due to non-injury reasons.
CONCLUSIONS: The results clearly show that more effort is needed to support female football players, especially after an injury, so that they do not quit the sport voluntarily.
Language: en
Keywords
Women’s football; sport career termination; sports injury