By Mark Baber
January 8 – The All India Football Federation (AIFF) is organising a first of its kind FIFA-AFC Football Medicine Regional Course – Central and South Region, starting January 14, 2013.
FIFA chief medical officer Professor Jiri Dvorak will be speaking on a range of topics from Football for Health to Head Injuries to On Field Management. Professor Dvorak is one of the driving forces behind F-MARC (the FIFA Medical Assessment and Research Centre) which is a largely unsung but very influential research unit which has developed the scientific basis for protecting the health of players.
F-MARC has conducted research on injuries amongst amateur and elite players and developed programmes including ‘the 11′ (an injury prevention programme for amateur players and the ’11+’ (warm-up exercises and fair play) which studies have shown significantly reduce injury rates. F-MARC has also had significant impact on the laws of the game. For instance, analysis of the causes of head injuries led to elbowing to the head being sanctioned with a red card.
The FIFA Medical Committee and F-MARC have also been developing a comprehensive “Football for Health” programme to improve physical, mental and social well-being. In Africa “The 11 for Health” programme educates youngsters, in a football environment, with simple health protection messages including playing football regularly, using treated bed nets, drinking clean water, HIV protection and respecting girls and women.
The four-day seminar in New Delhi will include doctors from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The other lecturers include Dato Gurcharan Singh of Malaysia (Chairman, Medical Department, AFC), Professor Brun Shane Perry of Australia (associated with AFC), Dr. Patrick Yung of Hong Kong (associated with AFC) and Dr. Jaspal Singh Sandhu of India (associated with AFC).
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