The Relative Age Effect in the 2013 FIFA U-17 Soccer World Cup Competition

Ridha Sallaoui; Karim Chamari; Moktar Chtara; Youssef Manai; Mourad Ghrairi; Mohcine Belhaouz; Abdullah Baroon

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15

| Peer-Reviewed

The Relative Age Effect in the 2013 FIFA U-17 Soccer World Cup Competition

Ridha Sallaoui, Karim Chamari, Moktar Chtara, Youssef Manai, Mourad Ghrairi, Mohcine Belhaouz, Abdullah Baroon

Published in American Journal of Sports Science (Volume 2, Issue 2)

Received: 12 February 2014 Published: 20 March 2014

Views: Downloads:

Download PDF

Share This Article

Twitter
Linked In
Facebook

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to check the eventual existence of any Relative Age Effect (RAE) in the recent 2013’ FIFA Male Under-17 (U-17) World Cup Football tournament. The data pertaining to the players who participated in to that event were collected from the FIFA website. They included the players’ dates of birth (day, month and year) and position (goalkeeper, defender, midfielder or striker).The distributions of birth months were significantly different with more players born in the early months of the year compared with the later months. For the entire cohort of players, 38.7% were born in the first quarter of the year while only 10.5% were born in the last 3 months in the same year. This relative age effect held for all FIFA-designated teams except for the Nigeria and the Côte d'Ivoire having shown a reverse relative age effect. The results of this investigation show that at the highest level of youth soccer, the RAE still exists and is a strong bias toward inclusion of players born early in the concerned year.

Published in	American Journal of Sports Science (Volume 2, Issue 2)
DOI	10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15
Page(s)	35-40
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2014. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Youth Soccer, Reverse Relative Age Effect, Birth-Date

References

[1]	Info: Plein soleil sur les futures étoiles Availableat: http://www.fr.fifa.com/u17worldcup. Cited: Oct 17, 2013.
[2]	Malina, R., Bouchard, C., & Bar-Or, OGrowth, maturation, and physical activity (2nd ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. . (2004)
[3]	Barnsley, R. H., Thompson, A. H., &Barnsley, P. E. Hockey success and birth-date: The relative age effect. Journal of the Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation, 1985; 51: 23–28.
[4]	Grondin, S., Deshaies, P. and Nault, L.P. Quarter of birth and participation in hockey and volleyball. La Revue Que´becoise de l’Activite´ Physique.1984; 2: 97-103.
[5]	Musch, J. and Grondin, S. Unequal competition as an impediment to personal development: a review of the relative age effect in sport. Developmental Review.2001; 21(2): 147-167.
[6]	Cobley, S., Baker, J., Wattie, N., & McKenna, J. Annual age-grouping and athlete development: A meta-analytical review of relative age effects in sport. Sports Medicine.2009 ; 39 : 235–256.
[7]	Grondin. S., & Trudeau, F. Date de naissance et ligue nationale de hockey: analyses en fonction de différents paramètres. Revue des Sciences et Techniques des Activités Physiques et Sportives.1991 ; 26 : 37–45.
[8]	Glamser, F. D., &Marciani, L. M. The birth-date effect and college athletic participation: some comparisons. Journal of Sport Behavior.1990; 15: 227–237.
[9]	Thompson, A. H., Barnsley, R. H., &Stebelsky, G. Born to play ball: The relative age effect and major league baseball. Sociology of Sport Journal.1991; 8: 146–151.
[10]	Delorme, N., Boiche, J., &Raspaud, M. Relative age effect in female sport: A diachronic examination of soccerplayers. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports.2010; 20: 509–515.
[11]	Schorer, J., Neumann, J., Cobley, S. P., Tietjens, M., & Baker, J. Lingering effects of relative age in basketball players’ post athletic career. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching.2011; 6(1): 143–147.
[12]	Edwards, S. Born too late to win?. [Letter to the Editor]. Nature.1994; 370- 186.
[13]	Baxter-Jones, A. Growth and development of young athletes. Should competition levels be age related? Sports Medicine.1995; 20: 59–64.
[14]	Dudink, A. D. Birth date and sporting success. Nature. 1994; 368, 592.
[15]	Cote´, J., Macdonald, D.J., Baker, J., & Abernethy, B. When ‘‘where’’ is more important than ‘‘when’’: birthplace and birthdate effects on achievement of sporting expertise. Journal of Sports Sciences.2006; 24: 1065–1073.
[16]	Van Rossum, J. H. Relative age effect revisited: Findings from the dance domain. Perception and Motor Skills. 2006; 102: 302– 308.
[17]	Helsen, W.F., Janet, L., Starkes, J.L. and Winckel, J.V. The influence of relative age on success and dropout in male soccer players. American Journal of Human Biology.1998; 12: 729-735.
[18]	Helsen, W. F., Hodges, N. J., Van Winkel, J., &Starkes, J. L. The roles of talent, physical precocity and practice in the development of soccer expertise. Journal of Sports Sciences.2000; 18: 1–10.
[19]	Helsen, W. F., Van Winkel, J., & Williams, A. M. The relative age effect in youth soccer across Europe. Journal of Sports Sciences.2005; 23: 629–636.
[20]	Bäumler, G. The relative age effect in soccer and its interaction with chronological age. Sportonomics.2000; 6(1): 25-30.
[21]	Verhulst, J. Seasonal birth distribution of West European soccer players: A possible explanation. Medical Hypotheses.1992; 38: 346–348.
[22]	Musch, J., & Hay, R. The relative age effect in soccer: Cross-cultural evidence for a systematic discrimination against children born late in the competition year. Sociology of Sport Journal.1999; 16: 54–64.
[23]	Barnsley, R.H., Thompson, A.H. and Legault, P. Family planning: Football style. The relative age effect in football. International Review for the Sociology of Sport.1992; 27(1): 77-88.
[24]	Williams JH. Relative age effect in youth soccer: analysis of the FIFA U17 World Cup competition. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2010; 20(3):502-8.
[25]	Robin van den Honert. Evidence of the relative age effect in football in Australia. Journal of Sports Sciences.2012; 30(13): 1365-1374
[26]	Werner F. Helsen , Joseph Baker , StijnMichiels , JoergSchorer , Jan Van winckel& A. Mark Williams. The relative age effect in European professional soccer: Did ten years of research make any difference? Journal of Sports Sciences.2012; 30:15,1665- 1671.
[27]	Malina, R.M. Talent identification and selection in sport. Technique.1999; 19: 16 19.
[28]	Philippaerts RM, Vaeyens R, Janssens M, Van Renterghem B, Matthys D, Craen R, Bourgois J, Vrijens J, Beunen G, Malina RM. The relationship between peak height velocity and physical performance in youth soccer players. J Sports Sci. 2006;24(3):221-30.
[29]	Reilly, B.F. Anthropometric and physiological predispositions for elite soccer. Journal of Sports Sciences.2000; 18, 669-683.
[30]	Simmons, C., &Paull, G. C. Seasonof-birth bias in association football. Journal of Sports Sciences.2001; 19: 677–686.
[31]	Malina, R., Bouchard, C., & Bar-Or, O. (2004). Growth, maturation, and physical activity (2nd ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.2004.
[32]	Martin, R.P. Clanton, G. and Moon, K. Season of birth is related to child retention rates, achievement, and rate of diagnosis of specific LD. Journal of Learning Disabilities.2004; 37(4): 307-317.
[33]	Siegler, R.S. Children’s thinking: Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. 1991.
[34]	Miller, P.H. The development of strategies in selective attention. In: Children’s strategies: Contemporary views of cognitive development. Ed: Bjorklund, D.F. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.1991: 157- 184.
[35]	Garner, R. Children’s use of strategies in reading. In: Children’s strategies: Contemporary views of cognitive development. Ed: Bjorklund, D.F. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.1991: 245-268 (English abstract).
[36]	Barkley, R.A. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: A handbook for diagnosis and treatment. New York: Guilford Press. 1998.
[37]	Cobley, S. P., Schorer, J., & Baker, J. Relative age effects in professional German soccer: A historical analysis. Journal of Sports Sciences.2008 26: 1531–1538.
[38]	Jime´nez, I. P., & Pain, M. T. (2008). Relative age effect in Spanish association football: Its extent and implications for wasted potential. Journal of Sports Sciences.2008; 26, 995–1003
[39]	Carling, C., le Gall, F., Reilly, T., & Williams, A. M. Do anthropometric and fitness characteristics vary according to birth date distribution in elite youth academy soccer players? Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports.2009; 19: 3–9.
[40]	Gil, S., Ruiz, F., Irazusta, A., Gil, J., &Irazusta, J. Selection of young soccer players in terms of anthropometric and physiological factors. The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness.2007; 47, 25–32.
[41]	Gravina, L., Gil, S. M., Ruiz, F., Zubero, J., Gil, J., &Irazusta, J. Anthropometric and physiological differences between first team and reserve soccer players aged 10–14 years at the beginning and end of the season. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.2008; 22: 1308–1314.
[42]	Augste, C., & Lames, M. The relative age effect and success in German elite U-17 soccer teams. Journal of Sports Sciences.2011; 29: 983–987.
[43]	Ndong I, Gloyd S, Gale J. An evaluation of vital registers as sources of data for infant mortality rates in Cameroon.Int J Epidemiol 1994: 23: 536–539.
[44]	Hurley, W., Lior, D. and Tracze, S. (2001) A proposal to reduce the agediscrimination in Canadian minor hockey. Journal of SportManagement. 2001; 16(3), 250.
[45]	Glamser, F. D. and Vincent, J. The relative age effect among elite american youth soccer players. Journal of Sport Behavior.2004; 27(1): 31-38.
[46]	Garcia, V. and Salvadores, J. The relative age effect in football. Training Fútbol. 2005, 115: 36-42.
[47]	Gutierrez Diaz Del Campo D, Pastor Vicedo JC, Gonzalez Villora S, Contreras Jordan OR. The relative age effect in youth soccer players from spain. J Spoort Sci Med. 2010, 1(9): 190-198.

Cite This Article

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Ridha Sallaoui, Karim Chamari, Moktar Chtara, Youssef Manai, Mourad Ghrairi, et al. (2014). The Relative Age Effect in the 2013 FIFA U-17 Soccer World Cup Competition. American Journal of Sports Science, 2(2), 35-40. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Ridha Sallaoui; Karim Chamari; Moktar Chtara; Youssef Manai; Mourad Ghrairi, et al. The Relative Age Effect in the 2013 FIFA U-17 Soccer World Cup Competition. Am. J. Sports Sci. 2014, 2(2), 35-40. doi: 10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Ridha Sallaoui, Karim Chamari, Moktar Chtara, Youssef Manai, Mourad Ghrairi, et al. The Relative Age Effect in the 2013 FIFA U-17 Soccer World Cup Competition. Am J Sports Sci. 2014;2(2):35-40. doi: 10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15,
  author = {Ridha Sallaoui and Karim Chamari and Moktar Chtara and Youssef Manai and Mourad Ghrairi and Mohcine Belhaouz and Abdullah Baroon},
  title = {The Relative Age Effect in the 2013 FIFA U-17 Soccer World Cup Competition},
  journal = {American Journal of Sports Science},
  volume = {2},
  number = {2},
  pages = {35-40},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajss.20140202.15},
  abstract = {Purpose: The purpose of this study was to check the eventual existence of any Relative Age Effect (RAE) in the recent 2013’ FIFA Male Under-17 (U-17) World Cup Football tournament. The data pertaining to the players who participated in to that event were collected from the FIFA website. They included the players’ dates of birth (day, month and year) and position (goalkeeper, defender, midfielder or striker).The distributions of birth months were significantly different with more players born in the early months of the year compared with the later months. For the entire cohort of players, 38.7% were born in the first quarter of the year while only 10.5% were born in the last 3 months in the same year. This relative age effect held for all FIFA-designated teams except for the Nigeria and the Côte d'Ivoire having shown a reverse relative age effect. The results of this investigation show that at the highest level of youth soccer, the RAE still exists and is a strong bias toward inclusion of players born early in the concerned year.},
 year = {2014}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Relative Age Effect in the 2013 FIFA U-17 Soccer World Cup Competition
AU  - Ridha Sallaoui
AU  - Karim Chamari
AU  - Moktar Chtara
AU  - Youssef Manai
AU  - Mourad Ghrairi
AU  - Mohcine Belhaouz
AU  - Abdullah Baroon
Y1  - 2014/03/20
PY  - 2014
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15
DO  - 10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15
T2  - American Journal of Sports Science
JF  - American Journal of Sports Science
JO  - American Journal of Sports Science
SP  - 35
EP  - 40
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-8540
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15
AB  - Purpose: The purpose of this study was to check the eventual existence of any Relative Age Effect (RAE) in the recent 2013’ FIFA Male Under-17 (U-17) World Cup Football tournament. The data pertaining to the players who participated in to that event were collected from the FIFA website. They included the players’ dates of birth (day, month and year) and position (goalkeeper, defender, midfielder or striker).The distributions of birth months were significantly different with more players born in the early months of the year compared with the later months. For the entire cohort of players, 38.7% were born in the first quarter of the year while only 10.5% were born in the last 3 months in the same year. This relative age effect held for all FIFA-designated teams except for the Nigeria and the Côte d'Ivoire having shown a reverse relative age effect. The results of this investigation show that at the highest level of youth soccer, the RAE still exists and is a strong bias toward inclusion of players born early in the concerned year.
VL  - 2
IS  - 2
ER  -

Copy | Download

Author Information

Ridha Sallaoui

Alahli Sports Club of Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Karim Chamari

Athete Health and Performance Research Center, Aspetar, Doha, Qatar
Moktar Chtara

National Center of Medicine and Sciences in Sports, Tunisia
Youssef Manai

Alahli Sports Club of Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Mourad Ghrairi

UAE Football Association, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Mohcine Belhaouz

UAE Football Association, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Abdullah Baroon

UAE Football Association, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Download PDF

Sections

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Ridha Sallaoui, Karim Chamari, Moktar Chtara, Youssef Manai, Mourad Ghrairi, et al. (2014). The Relative Age Effect in the 2013 FIFA U-17 Soccer World Cup Competition. American Journal of Sports Science, 2(2), 35-40. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Ridha Sallaoui; Karim Chamari; Moktar Chtara; Youssef Manai; Mourad Ghrairi, et al. The Relative Age Effect in the 2013 FIFA U-17 Soccer World Cup Competition. Am. J. Sports Sci. 2014, 2(2), 35-40. doi: 10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Ridha Sallaoui, Karim Chamari, Moktar Chtara, Youssef Manai, Mourad Ghrairi, et al. The Relative Age Effect in the 2013 FIFA U-17 Soccer World Cup Competition. Am J Sports Sci. 2014;2(2):35-40. doi: 10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15,
  author = {Ridha Sallaoui and Karim Chamari and Moktar Chtara and Youssef Manai and Mourad Ghrairi and Mohcine Belhaouz and Abdullah Baroon},
  title = {The Relative Age Effect in the 2013 FIFA U-17 Soccer World Cup Competition},
  journal = {American Journal of Sports Science},
  volume = {2},
  number = {2},
  pages = {35-40},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajss.20140202.15},
  abstract = {Purpose: The purpose of this study was to check the eventual existence of any Relative Age Effect (RAE) in the recent 2013’ FIFA Male Under-17 (U-17) World Cup Football tournament. The data pertaining to the players who participated in to that event were collected from the FIFA website. They included the players’ dates of birth (day, month and year) and position (goalkeeper, defender, midfielder or striker).The distributions of birth months were significantly different with more players born in the early months of the year compared with the later months. For the entire cohort of players, 38.7% were born in the first quarter of the year while only 10.5% were born in the last 3 months in the same year. This relative age effect held for all FIFA-designated teams except for the Nigeria and the Côte d'Ivoire having shown a reverse relative age effect. The results of this investigation show that at the highest level of youth soccer, the RAE still exists and is a strong bias toward inclusion of players born early in the concerned year.},
 year = {2014}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Relative Age Effect in the 2013 FIFA U-17 Soccer World Cup Competition
AU  - Ridha Sallaoui
AU  - Karim Chamari
AU  - Moktar Chtara
AU  - Youssef Manai
AU  - Mourad Ghrairi
AU  - Mohcine Belhaouz
AU  - Abdullah Baroon
Y1  - 2014/03/20
PY  - 2014
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15
DO  - 10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15
T2  - American Journal of Sports Science
JF  - American Journal of Sports Science
JO  - American Journal of Sports Science
SP  - 35
EP  - 40
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-8540
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajss.20140202.15
AB  - Purpose: The purpose of this study was to check the eventual existence of any Relative Age Effect (RAE) in the recent 2013’ FIFA Male Under-17 (U-17) World Cup Football tournament. The data pertaining to the players who participated in to that event were collected from the FIFA website. They included the players’ dates of birth (day, month and year) and position (goalkeeper, defender, midfielder or striker).The distributions of birth months were significantly different with more players born in the early months of the year compared with the later months. For the entire cohort of players, 38.7% were born in the first quarter of the year while only 10.5% were born in the last 3 months in the same year. This relative age effect held for all FIFA-designated teams except for the Nigeria and the Côte d'Ivoire having shown a reverse relative age effect. The results of this investigation show that at the highest level of youth soccer, the RAE still exists and is a strong bias toward inclusion of players born early in the concerned year.
VL  - 2
IS  - 2
ER  -

Copy | Download