ABSTRACT
Interventions that use popular sports such as football as the exercise stimulus have been developed as a way to engage with HTR populations. Football may have a great potential to act as a health promotion tool as a consequence of its ability to improve the motivational and social factors associated with its participation when compared to more traditional types of exercise interventions such as continuous moderate intensity running.5 In order to remove the barriers for male participation, it has been suggested6 that sports groups may serve as the most appropriate community setting for these populations, as traditional health care advice is typically dominated by female friendly practises which make male populations regard themselves as intruders.7 Until recently, few studies have investigated the health effects of football training, small sided game (SSG) play and match play.8 These investigations, typically conducted over 12 weeks with two-three 60 min sessions per week, have shown positive health benefits linked to football participation such as muscular hypertrophy and increases in strength,9 a decrease in blood pressure,10 a decrease in total fat mass11 as well as an increase in _V02max.
