A Tale of Two Selection Biases: The Independent Effects of Relative Age and Biological Maturity on Player Selection in the Football Association of Ireland’s National Talent Pathway

Liam Sweeney, Sean P. Cumming, Aine MacNamara, Dan Horan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

This study investigated the associations between biological maturation status (classified using the Khamis–Roche method for the percentage of predicted adult height at the time of observation) and relative age (expressed as a decimal value relative to the difference between birth date and competition cut-off date) and the extent to which their relative selection biases existed across competitive age groups in an analysis of players within the Football Association of Ireland's (FAI) national talent pathway. The players assessed were either from the U13 FAI National Academy (n = 125), the Ireland U15 national team (n = 18), or the Ireland U16 national team (n = 16). A moderate to very large selection bias in favour of early maturing players was observed across all age groups, increasing in magnitude with successive age groups (p 
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1992-2003
JournalInternational Journal of Sports Science & Coaching
Volume18
Issue number6
Early online date26 Sept 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 Dec 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research conducted in this publication was funded by the Irish Research Council under award number GOIPG/2021/277.

Keywords

  • Development
  • predicted adult height
  • soccer academy
  • youth sport

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)

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