Consuming caffeine before a match may help footballers improve the accuracy of their passes but can have a negative impact on tactical play and other skills, new research has found.
A joint study by Staffordshire University and Shiraz University, in Iran, shows that consuming caffeine can have a negative impact on a player’s in-game decision-making skills as well as dribbling and ball control.
But at the same time it can boost pass accuracy – particularly long-range passing – by more than 13 per cent.
The research is expected to be useful to football team coaches who can explore the effects of the stimulant as they look to optimise player performance.
Dr Pooya Soltani, Senior Lecturer in Games Technology at Staffordshire University, said: “Caffeine is one of the most popular dietary supplements which has been shown to provide benefits during exercise, including football.
“Studies have shown that caffeine can enhance attention, accuracy, and speed, as well as self-reported measures of energy and mood.
“However, the effects of caffeine on ‘higher’ cognitive functions such as problem-solving and decision-making are often debated, so we decided to investigate this.”
As part of the research, 12 footballers, aged 16 to 17, took part in a series of tasks to explore the impact of caffeine on decision-making and passing accuracy.
Participants performed five short (10 metre) and five long (30 metre) passes, as well as the Loughborough Soccer Passing Test which assesses skills including passing, dribbling, control, and decision-making.
A computer task was then used to measure decision-making in different gameplay scenarios, with participants asked to determine the best outcome of ten simulated pre-recorded events.
The participants completed the tasks once after taking 3 mg/kg body mass of caffeine and once after consuming similar amounts of placebo.
The footballers were 1.67 per cent more accurate in short passes and 13.48 per cent more accurate in long passes when they consumed caffeine compared to the placebo.
However, participants’ decision-making was 7.14 per cent lower and the Loughborough Soccer Passing Test scores were 3.49 per cent lower when they consumed caffeine compared to the placebo.
Shiraz University’s Negar Jafari said: “This may suggest that more complex tasks with a higher number of passes might negatively be affected by low doses of caffeine ingested one hour before playing.”
However, the researchers stress they are not suggesting footballers should avoid caffeine completely and recommend further research into its effects on decision-making in the game.
Dr Soltani added: “During a football match, players must process various cues such as opponents’ positions, team organisation and time pressure. Decision-making in passing is particularly important – where a well-executed pass can create scoring opportunities.
“Our findings show that this can be affected by caffeine intake and coaches may find these performance metrics useful to explore in training.”
