A comprehensive new guide on breast health and sports bra support has been produced, addressing the needs of women footballers across every stage of their playing career
The University of Portsmouth's Research Group in Breast Health (RGBH) has worked alongside UEFA to develop an educational breast health resource for football players - the first to provide dedicated guidance for players during pregnancy and the post-partum period.
The UEFA Medical & Anti-Doping Sports Bra Guide provides players, parents and club staff with easy to apply evidence-informed advice on breast health, sports bra selection and support, across body changes women experience throughout their lives.
"Nothing at this level has been developed that focuses on all stages of a female footballer’s career,” explained Dr Jenny Burbage, Associate Professor in Applied Biomechanics & Women's Health at the University of Portsmouth’s RGBH. “Women's bodies are varied and change over time for different reasons and resources should reflect that.”
Sports bras are essential performance equipment. Inadequate breast support can cause exercise-induced breast pain, altered running biomechanics, long-term tissue damage and, critically, may deter women from participating in physical activity altogether. For players navigating pregnancy and the post-partum period, the breast undergoes physiological change.
Building on a decade of football partnership
The UEFA collaboration is the latest milestone in a long-standing relationship between the RGBH and elite football. The group's partnership with the Football Association (FA) is perhaps best known for its role ahead of UEFA Euro 2022, when researchers conducted breast health workshops and individually prescribed sports bras for each player in the England women's squad, the Lionesses. When Chloe Kelly's iconic goal in extra time sealed the championship, the sports bra she revealed to the world had been prescribed and fitted by the Portsmouth team.
That work with the FA was part of a wider programme spanning over a decade and more than 8,000 research participants. The RGBH has tested over 700 sports bras and, in doing so, monitored more than one million breast bounces - forming the basis of the world's largest database on sports bra performance. This expertise underpins the guidance delivered to international federations, elite clubs, and governing bodies.
More recently, the group has extended its football work to UEFA's match officials. Research published in the Journal of Sports Sciences in 2026, led by Dr Burbage, found that 93 per cent of elite female football referees reported at least one breast or bra-related issue during officiating duties - exceeding that recorded in military recruits and marathon runners.
The study investigated bra usage, preferences and the impact of individual sports bra prescription, and found that the most worn style - the compression crop top - was frequently unsuitable across the range of body types represented among officials.
Following a programme of breast health education and bespoke bra prescription delivered by Dr Burbage and the RGBH, significant improvements were observed in comfort, confidence and performance among participants.
A resource for the whole career
The new UEFA Sports Bra Guide is designed to reflect the realities of women's football across a full playing career.
Dr Burbage added: “What I love about this resource is that it meets women where they are. Pregnancy and the post-partum period bring real, significant changes to the body, and for the first time players and support staff have something practical and evidence-based to turn to at those stages.”
The guide is grounded in the RGBH's ongoing research within elite football on breast support, comfort and performance, and integrates findings from across the group's wider body of work with female athletes in football, netball, the military, the British Olympic Association and the English Institute of Sport (EIS). Ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the RGBH prescribed bespoke bras for British athletes in rowing, shooting and hockey.
About the Research Group in Breast Health
Founded in 2005 by Professor Joanna Wakefield-Scurr, the Research Group in Breast Health at the University of Portsmouth is the world's leading centre for sports bra research and breast biomechanics. The cross-disciplinary group brings together biomechanists, psychologists, physiologists and clinicians to advance scientific understanding of breast health and its implications for exercise, performance and wellbeing.
The group's work spans elite sport, occupational health (including the British Army and police service), commercial bra development with global brands including Adidas, and public health initiatives such as the Treasure Your Chest programme, which aims to increase sport participation among schoolgirls by addressing breast-related barriers to exercise.
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