¿Es viable el fútbol de élite sobre césped artificial? El caso FIFA Women World Cup™

Abstract

The aim of this research is to compare the game play variables in artificial turf vs. natural turf at high performance level and to assess in which manner it affects to the sport performance and the management of the facility. We analyzed 283 women players who participated in the FIFA® World Championship of 2011 (natural grass) and 483 women players of 2015 (artificial turf). Variables measured were passes, touches, dribbles, and tackles. We used U of Mann-Whitney test to evaluate the differences between two tournaments. Results showed that the success percentage of all game play actions is higher in artificial turf (World Championship 2015) in most of variables analyzed (except dribbles), in total and depending on player position.