The Portuguese Football Federation's New Paradigm During COVID-19

Abstract

Sport is probably the main form of physical activity. Football (i.e., soccer) is often mentioned as the most popular sport. Not surprisingly, the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) consistently registers the largest number of participants among 60 sport federations that are recognized by the Portuguese Government. To enhance quality, FPF created the Portugal Football School (PFS) aimed to promote education and applied research in parallel to knowledge transfer. The targets are players, managers, clinical professionals, nutritionists, and media. Until the emergence of the current pandemic, COVID-19, the educational model followed the traditional classroom setting for teaching and learning. This chapter's focus will be only on the PFS Education area and presenting results related to the PFS courses and participants in the pre-COVID-19 period and during COVID-19 pandemic time.