Physiological workload during a football practice as well as a match is quite high due to high intensity which must be maintained over longer periods of time, or at least until the end of a match. Football requires excellent aerobic and anaerobic abilities, which can increase the complexity of the contemporary training technology. In this study, 240 boys were tested, aged 7-14. 120 participants were enrolled in the football school SPC 'Vojvodina', and had practiced the sport since they were 7 years old. Together they made up the experimental group, which was divided into 4 subgroups: 1) 7-8 years, 2) 9-10 y, 3) 11-12 y, and, 4)13-14 y. The control group was comprised of 120 sedentary boys who did not engage in any organised sport, but had physical education classes in school twice a week. This group was also divided into age subgroups in an identical fashion as the experimental group. The assessment of the boys' functional abilities was done with the Lorenzo (FSLORN) and Bergman tests (FSBERG). With the sole exception of the youngest subgroup (7-8 y), for which no differences were observed. The magnitude of these statistically significant differences was directly proportional to the intensity of the tests. The differences between footballers and sedentary boys for the 9-10 y and 11-12 y subgroups were greater on the Lorenzo test, and for the 13-14 y-old boys on the Bergman test.
