Kelly Adam Leigh, Zwenk Frederike, Mann David, Verbeek Jan
Research for Athlete and Youth Sport Development (RAYSD) Lab, Birmingham City University, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
The Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB), Zeist, Netherlands.
Front Sports Act Living. 2025 May 29;7:1565819. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1565819. eCollection 2025.
Following the lack of widely implemented interventions to mitigate Relative Age Effects (RAEs) in sports, the Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB) called on stakeholders to propose relative age solutions in youth soccer (Part One). This initial study yielded 13 lower-order potential solutions, many of which remain hypothetical. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate these solutions to overcome RAEs in youth soccer using a two-round adapted e-Delphi study.
Fifteen international experts, including both researchers and practitioners, rated (out of 9) each solution on how likely it is to directly and indirectly mitigate RAEs (Round 1) and how feasible it is to implement (Round 2).
Findings indicated that "rotating cut-off dates" was perceived as the most effective solution to mitigate direct and indirect RAEs (6.2 ± 1.6), although it was not rated particularly feasible (4.6 ± 2.5). In comparison, while "cueing differences in age" was perceived as the most feasible solution (6.7 ± 2.1), it was deemed less useful for mitigating RAEs (5.2 ± 2.3). Taken together, "cueing differences in age" was considered the most viable solution across both rounds (5.8 ± 2.3).
Interestingly, highly rated solutions perceived to effectively moderate RAEs were generally expected to be more challenging to implement. Results also showed regular disagreement amongst the international experts, highlighting that creating consensus on possible relative age solutions may be difficult to achieve in youth soccer. Moving forward, the highest rated solutions should be designed, implemented, and evaluated based on their effectiveness and feasibility in practice.
由于缺乏广泛实施的干预措施来减轻体育领域的相对年龄效应（RAEs），荷兰皇家足球协会（KNVB）呼吁利益相关者提出青少年足球领域的相对年龄解决方案（第一部分）。这项初步研究产生了13个低阶潜在解决方案，其中许多仍属假设。因此，本研究旨在通过两轮适应性电子德尔菲研究来评估这些解决方案，以克服青少年足球中的相对年龄效应。
15名国际专家，包括研究人员和从业者，对每个解决方案在直接和间接减轻相对年龄效应的可能性（第一轮）以及实施的可行性（第二轮）方面进行评分（满分9分）。
研究结果表明，“轮换截止日期”被认为是减轻直接和间接相对年龄效应的最有效解决方案（6.2±1.6），尽管其可行性评分不高（4.6±2.5）。相比之下，“提示年龄差异”被认为是最可行的解决方案（6.7±2.1），但在减轻相对年龄效应方面被认为效果较差（5.2±2.3）。综合来看，“提示年龄差异”在两轮研究中都被认为是最可行的解决方案（5.8±2.3）。
有趣的是，被认为能有效缓和相对年龄效应的高评分解决方案通常预计实施起来更具挑战性。结果还显示国际专家之间经常存在分歧，这突出表明在青少年足球领域就可能的相对年龄解决方案达成共识可能很难实现。展望未来，应根据其在实践中的有效性和可行性来设计、实施和评估评分最高的解决方案。
