The influence of fixture congestion on external match load in youth soccer players competing in a tournament format: anonymized dataset and analysis code

This repository contains the fully anonymized dataset and R analysis code needed to reproduce all results reported in the associated study on fixture congestion and external match load in elite youth soccer players. Two age groups (U17 and U21) from an elite youth development programme were analysed across the 2024 season, using match external-load data collected with 10-Hz GPS units. Running the provided R script on the two CSV files regenerates every table and statistic in the manuscript, including descriptive statistics, linear mixed-effects models, intraclass correlation coefficients, and all sensitivity analyses. The data are de-identified: no player names, match dates, opponent names, or competition/tournament names are included; identifiers are replaced with sequential codes, and free-text date/fixture/competition fields have been removed. Numeric load metrics and covariates are preserved value-for-value. A README file documents the full variable dictionary and reproduction steps.