Sustainable Innovation in Football Referee Training in Czech Republic

Professional football has been recently characterized by an increase in game speed and complexity. From this, it follows that football referees also need to improve their skills to keep up with players and adequately respond in various disputed situations. The purpose of this work is to increase the performance indicators of physical fitness and activity of referees during the annual cycle. Most referees prefer the game method. For a football referee or referee’s assistant during a game, physical activity is similar to that of runners/athletes. Football referees are engaged in performance that is more intense, as compared to their assistants, at the international level especially. Such conditions are close to extreme and are characterized by an intense physical load dictated by game duration. This study suggested using athletics in comprehensive sustainable training of football referees. As it turned out, athletics-based training significantly improved the motor activity of football referees.