Alberto Cei

1. Uncertainty - Sport is a typical situation of uncertainty in which only one win, it must know how to accept this condition and live it with determination.
2. Expectations - The higher the skill level, the higher the expectations, that instead during the competition should be set aside to focus only on the present, forgetting the future represented by the final result.
3. Time - Every race is marked by time, that must be managed while maintaining the proper timing for each action without fear and without slowing down and speeding to excess of impatience.
4. Change - The race is a situation in which the changes take place continuously and often without warning,  the competitors have to accept mistakes and be able to adapt flexibly to what is happening.
5. Visibility - The competition is a public social comparison, each one shows him/herself in the game.
6. Control - The athletes must know what they can control and what depends to a lesser extent by their behaviors. Certainly can control the effectiveness of their sport performance. They can not however determine the outcome, which depends instead by the interaction with the opponent.
7. Choices - The race is a continuous situation of choice in relation to the strategy to be used, the shot to perform, the behavioral management. Choose is an ongoing task and the athlete must be trained to do it.
8. Compete - Sport is not an aesthetic activity, consists of a constant confront with opponents, the start and the end are not decided by the athletes. They must be available to provide the optimal performance by accepting these conditions and rules that are a guarantee of equal opportunities for comparison.
9. Ourselves - Athlete and team should be the main supporters of themselves, while they are often the cause of their problems. They become impatient, insecure, very little constructive, paralyze by analysis or  overly impulsive.
10. Motivation - It ‘s the foundation of everything. The situations and the others can provide good reasons to commit at the best, but no one can motivate another person. The motivation stems from the belief that it improves thanks to our commitment.

The big extra times being given by referees at the World Cup in Qatar are not good for the players. National team champions should have been trained for this, instead the new method was improvised. Corriere della Sera writes this in a piece by Paolo Casarin, who interviews Alberto Cei, professor of psychology at the University of Tor Vergata and S. Raffaele in Rome. Cei explains it very clearly: players are used to playing within a certain time frame. The uncertainty about recovery, the lengthening of playing time, puts a strain on their physical and mental resilience. It’s like a runner training to run 5,000 meters and then finding out that he has to cover twice as much. Footballers, in short, should have been prepared for the novelty with specific training.

“The main players in games are the footballers, and in them the certainty of the start and end of the game determines, over the years, the construction of a mentality that enables them to be ready for the referee’s whistle. The mental schemes of the footballers include not only “what to do” but also “when to do” within a defined time period of 90 minutes to which are added, for many years, about 5 minutes of recovery time. Everything in the lives of soccer players is organized to enable them to express themselves at their best during this time period, which is experienced with great mental stress in important matches such as those of a World Cup. The abnormal lengthening of the recovery time that has never been experienced in the leagues puts a strain on the physical and mental resilience of teams. It is as if a runner trained to run the 5,000 discovers at the World Cup that the distance has been lengthened by 1,000 meters. Whatever the reason for introducing it, it had to be agreed upon with those who produce the performance, the soccer players, who should have had time to train to play with this new procedure.”