GEORGE NASSIS, PHD, MBA

Introduction

Playing football in the heat can be a challenge for the players’ health and performance, and this is due to the rise in internal body temperature (Nybo et al., 2017). It seems that more matches will be played in the heat in the future, including the 2026 FIFA World Cup (Gouttebarge et al., 2023; Nybo et al., 2021) and this calls for searching for potential solutions to mitigate the effects of heat on players’ health and performance. This article focuses on the cooling techniques that can be applied before and during the match with the aim to provide practical solutions.