Nutrition for Football

Whenever highly talented, motivated and well trained players meet in a football competition, the margin between victory and defeat is small. Attention to detail can make that vital difference. Your diet affects your performance, and the food you choose in training and competition will affect how well you train and play.

It makes no sense to train hard and ignore the benefits that follow from good food choices!

While there is no such thing as a magic diet or food, there are many ways in which eating and drinking well can allow players at all levels of performance to achieve the special goals of their training and competition programmes.

A well-balanced and varied diet made of natural foods rich in valuable nutrients is the best performance enhancer you can use. Compared to doping methods and supplements, it has at least two clear advantages: First, it is allowed and will not place you at risk of a positive doping test and consecutive sanctions. Second, it is healthy and will make you feel better in training, competition and leisure time without any hazards to your physical and mental health.

Just one example: No other dietary strategies enjoy the reputation of proven performance enhancers as do the consumption of water and carbohydrate during exercise. The information on these web pages will provide players and coaches - and of course the team chef - with the latest guidelines in sports nutrition from experts in the field. They represent the key points from the consensus meeting on nutrition for football held at FIFA House in September 2005 in Zurich.

You can turn this science into optimum performance and well-being by learning the practical aspects. This information on nutrition perfectly complements the information on doping since it highlights the better choice for enhancing performance: healthy, effective and explicitly allowed.

source: FIFA website