In France, soccer is the most popular sport, which today attracts a huge television audience with millions of spectators in the case of international competitions. During certain games with European top clubs, the attendance of adult emergencies is impacted. However, the impact of international soccer competitions on pediatric emergency department (PED) activity has not been evaluated.

We performed a retrospective analysis of attendance in the PED of a tertiary university hospital in Nancy (France) during the UEFA 2016 championship and the FIFA 2018 World Cup. Games were represented by 2.5-h blocks and the tournament period was compared with the same period in the previous year.

Considering all games, we did not observe an impact of PED attendance. The admission rate was significantly lower during the final phase (11.1 patients per match vs. 13.9, P=0.037). We observed a decrease in consultations for trauma (4.9 vs. 6.7, P=0.006). The effects were higher during games involving the national French team, with a decrease in less severe admissions (P=0.034), attendance of older children (P=0.016), and the presence of the father as accompanying adult (P=0.002). During the two final matches, we observed a decrease of 14% in the total activity.

We found significant differences in PED attendance during two international soccer tournaments. It would be interesting to study this effect in countries other than France or in countries with different sport habits.