Football referees are constantly under scrutiny by players, fans and the media. A research project led by Phil Barter and Sam Carr, two new members of the Sport and Health Sciences team, is pursuing the effectiveness of refereeing decisions following fatigue. The research is designed to assess the effectiveness of refereeing decisions at different stages of fatigue with a view to identifying potential reasons for errors in refereeing. The project is interdisciplinary in nature linking decision making processes, video analysis of key incidents during a game and the physiological effect of fatigue. The research design includes obtaining oxygen consumption values and decision making accuracy, at three stages, in a given time scale. These stages include at rest, after completing exercise at 60% of the VO2max and again after completing exercise at 80% of their VO2max. It is hoped that this research may identify key stages, during a game, when errors are made in the decision making process with a view to suggesting strategies through which these errors could be reduced. Lance Doggart
# posted by A Sociologist : 4:12 PM
