Assistant Referee Adam Nunn prepares for 2025 FIFA Club World Cup with heat training sessions at Team Bath Sports Science Centre
Professional Assistant Referee Adam Nunn has called upon his Qatar World Cup preparations at the University of Bath to acclimatise for the FIFA Club World Cup, which gets under way later this month in the United States.
The Premier League and FIFA official has once again been doing exercise and recovery sessions at the Team Bath Physio & Sports Science Centre in a plastic indoor chamber heated to more than 30 degrees Celcius.
It was preparation that served him well for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and Nunn hopes it will help him adapt quickly to the high temperatures expected in host cities like Miami, Orlando, Atlanta and Pasadena for this summer’s expanded Club World Cup tournament, which runs from 14th June to 13th July.
“I have weekly strength and conditioning sessions throughout the season at the Sports Training Village but in preparation for specific tournaments, I do a set of heat chamber sessions which help me acclimatise to the heat we’re expecting to face,” he explained.
“People think that heat acclimatisation is about preparing for the physical demands of matches in those conditions but it is the mental demands too. We are making big decisions under pressure and if you add heat to that it can become a lot more difficult, so the more used to those conditions we are the better prepared we are all round.
“We talk about elite sport being those one per cent gains, getting that one step ahead, and this has been a big part of that.”
Nunn, who was assistant referee for last month’s FA Cup Final between Crystal Palace and Manchester City, officiates alongside fellow assistant Gary Beswick and referee Anthony Taylor. This will be their second Club World Cup having officiated the 2022 final in Morocco where Real Madrid beat Al Hilal 5-3.
To meet the intensity of elite-level football, referees and officials with the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) follow training programmes featuring weekly sessions at regional centres around the country. These centres include the University of Bath, where Nunn and fellow officials from the South West do strength and conditioning work with Team Bath Performance Services Manager Ricky Massiah. Team Bath Applied Sports Scientist Jonathan Robinson oversaw the heat chamber sessions.
The heat chambers and other physiological tests at Team Bath, designed to help people measure and maximise their levels of fitness, are all available for public use. Click here to find out more.
