New research may give footballers something to chew over in extra time

While football fans may be chewing their nails when a Euro 2024 game goes into extra-time, players may be reaping the benefits of chewing caffeine gum according to new research.

In the first study of its kind, it was found that the gum can preserve players’ crucial reaction times, which typically slows down when play goes deep into the game beyond the usual 90 minutes.

However, it could be a double-edged sword as researchers also found that it reduced players’ composure, something which could impact on shooting and penalties.

Caffeine is already popular as a supplement among football teams with gum a widespread way of delivering it into the body.

Players that did not consume the caffeine gum or took a placebo version saw their reaction time reduced, while those that took the caffeine maintained their reaction times.

The study from Manchester Metropolitan University Institute of Sport was published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition & Exercise Metabolism

It is the first study to look into the effects of caffeine gum in relation to the cognitive aspect of performance around extra time. Much of the previous research into caffeine gum has looked at physical performance for example how far players run, as well as technical performance such as skills, dribbling and shots.

Emerging data suggests that 97% of English professional soccer clubs administer caffeine to players, with chewing gum, the second most popular method after energy shots containing caffeine.

A third of knockout matches progressed to extra-time at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, with more than 85% of the finalists at the European and World Cup competing in a 120-minute match over the last two decades.

Lead researcher, Dr Adam Field, Lecturer in Sport Science and Elite Performance at Manchester Met’s Institute of Sport, said: “We know that players’ physical, technical and cognitive performance drops off during extra time and that it’s likely linked to fatigue, and we wanted to know whether caffeine gum prevents that drop off.

“We found that the caffeine had no impact on physical performance or technical performance - we still saw the decline here, but what it did do is attenuate that reduction in reaction time.

This means that reaction speed wasn’t reduced any further from 90 minutes to the end of play - essentially giving players an advantage when having to make quick decisions during extra time.”

He added: “Football requires composure, particularly when shooting and especially under the pressure of major tournaments like the Euros, so there would be implications for those players in extra time.

“This can be a real issue, particularly for penalty shootouts and the fact that a lot of matches in tournaments are not actually concluded in extra time, so the chance of penalties happening are quite high.”

The study was carried out on 12 male semi-professional football players. All players completed a simulated football match in the laboratory on two occasions and were assessed using a virtual reality simulator.