The FIFA 11+ programme is a three-part, 15-exercise warm-up that takes around 20 minutes and replaces a normal warm-up before training or a match. Teams that do it consistently, at least twice a week, have shown injury reductions of up to 50% in studies, depending on the type of injury measured.
It was developed by F-MARC, FIFA's medical and research centre, as an expanded version of a simpler programme called "The 11", first tested on amateur footballers in Switzerland with results strong enough to warrant further international study, including a Norwegian trial on youth teams. It's built for players 14 and older, needs no special equipment beyond cones and a ball, and works equally for an amateur five-a-side group or a professional squad.
Part 1: running with controlled contact
The first eight minutes are light jogging in pairs along a course marked by 6 to 10 pairs of cones, 5 to 6 metres apart:
- Running straight ahead — jog together, picking up speed progressively on the way back.
- Hip out and hip in — walk or jog, lifting the knee and rotating the hip outward or inward at each pair of cones, alternating legs.
- Circling partner — run together to the cones, then shuffle sideways and circle fully around each other.
- Shoulder contact — the same sideways shuffle, finished with a synchronised jump that ends in light shoulder-to-shoulder contact, landing on both feet with soft knees.
- Quick forwards and backwards — a short sprint to the next pair of cones, then back to the previous one, in small, quick steps.
Part 2: strength, balance and plyometrics
Ten minutes, six exercises, each with three difficulty levels — move up a level only once the current one feels easy for the stated reps:
| Exercise | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| The bench (forearm plank) | Static, 3×20-30 sec | Alternate leg lifts | One leg lifted and held |
| Sideways bench | Static, 3×20-30 sec each side | Hip lift and lower | With the top leg raised |
| Hamstrings (kneeling, partner holds ankles) | At least 3-5 reps or 60 sec | — | — |
| Single-leg balance | Hold the ball with both hands, 30 sec | Pass the ball around your waist | Partner tries to unbalance you |
| Squats | With a toe raise | Walking lunges | On one leg |
| Jumps | Vertical, quick | Lateral | Imaginary cross (forward-back-sideways) |
Every exercise uses bodyweight only, no equipment, and some need a partner — without one, the balance and contact exercises can be adapted or skipped, though the effect is weaker.
Part 3: fast running with direction changes
The final two minutes raise intensity to 75-90% of top speed:
- Running across the pitch, at 75-80% of maximum pace.
- Bounding, high knee lift, landing softly on the ball of the foot, with an exaggerated opposite-arm swing.
- Plant and cut — jog 4-5 steps, plant on the outside leg, change direction, then sprint 5-7 steps at 80-90% of maximum pace.
In every Part 3 exercise, the knee shouldn't buckle inward on landing or planting — that control is exactly what the whole programme trains, since its absence is what most often leads to sprains and ligament tears.
How often it needs repeating to work
The effect doesn't come from a single session. The programme only works done consistently, at least twice a week, usually as the standard warm-up at training; before a match, doing just Part 1 and Part 3, without the strength block, is enough. The first measurable results usually show up around nine weeks into regular use — what decides how well it works isn't how hard one session is, but how consistently it's kept up month after month.
The scale the programme has been rolled out at says something about how seriously it's taken: in Brazil alone, the football federation ran 44 coaching courses, reaching 1,917 participants, specifically to teach coaches how to implement FIFA 11+ correctly with youth teams. It isn't a one-off tip — it's a programme several federations run at national scale.
The numbers on injury reduction vary by study and by the type of injury tracked. A study published in the British Medical Journal, on youth women's football teams, measured 29% fewer match injuries, 37% fewer training injuries, 47.7% fewer severe injuries and 54.4% fewer overuse injuries. Other reviews cite overall reductions between 30% and 50%, and one review of studies mentions up to 70% in the most favourable cases. There's no single "correct" percentage — but no study found here points the other way.
Does it work for basketball, volleyball or tennis too?
It was built for football, and the strongest evidence still comes from football. That said, a study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine tested an adapted version of the programme in basketball, with a positive effect on injury rates, and the underlying principles — controlled running before intense effort, core strength, single-leg balance, knee control on landing — aren't specific to football. They apply to any sport with running, repeated jumping and sudden changes of direction, including basketball, volleyball and tennis.
Sporta MD helps you find and book a pitch or court for football, basketball, volleyball and tennis in Chișinău — what you do before you step onto it is still up to you.