Soccer is an enjoyable team sport that helps provide fitness and can be used as a tool for treating lifestyle diseases. Women's soccer creates common stories and helps women stay fit while men worry less when playing than when doing other outdoorsy activities.
  
Those above are the findings of an extensive research project led by Professors Peter Krustrup and Jens Bangsbo from the University of Copenhagen, Department of Exercise and Sports Sciences, a couple of years ago.
  
The research project involved more than 50 researches from various countries. It took on psychological, sociological and physiological aspects of recreational soccer and compared such aspects with running. The research took more than 3 years to complete. Unfortunately, this study won't help improve your betting tips.
  
We summarize below some of the most important findings of the reasearch project:
  
- soccer provides health and fitness benefits for those that practice it that are equal and in some cases better than those provided by running;
  
- for women, soccer forces them to focus more on the group as compared to running, which forces them to focus more on the individual. Most women thought running would be easier to keep up with but at the end of the project they changed their mind.
  
- soccer is easier to keep up with as well; one year after the research, most people involved in the study group continued to play soccer yet not many have managed to keep up with running. The main reason for this seems to be that runners are concentrating on health while soccer players are concentrated on the fun of the activity itself, which makes it easier to keep up with.
  
-both men and women experienced a high level of flow while playing soccer and men worried a lot less while playing soccer than running. The latter finding doesn't seem to hold for women as well.
  
The research unit of FIFA, F-MARC, was one of the partners of the research project. The study seems to provide scientific baking to the FIFA "The 11 for Health" campaign that uses soccer as an educational health tool for children in South American and African communities.