Quarter’s external workload demands of basketball referees during a European youth congested-fixture tournament

The study’s purposes were to ascertain referees’ external workload, and to analyse the match periods and match outcome effects during an European youth basketball championship. Through principal component analysis, the variables relative distance at walking, high intensity (>16 km/h; Distance Explosive), sprinting, and maximum sprinting, number of events >24 km/h, maximum and average speed, total and maximum acceleration, accelerations between 1–2 (Acc 1–2), 2–3 and 4–5 m/s 2, and total impacts between 3–5 (Impacts 3–5 g) and 5–8 g were selected. Twelve elite-level basketball referees were assessed using inertial devices with ultrawide-band indoor tracking technology. Statistical analysis was composed by MANOVA with Bonferroni post-hoc. Referees’ activity profile in Q1 was explained in 80.6% by 5 Principal Components (PCs), in Q2 79.71% by 4 PCs, in Q3 74.82% by 4 PCs and in Q4 74.69% by 3 PCs. Regarding match periods, performance decreasing throughout quarters was found in Distance Explosive, Acc 1–2 and Impacts 3–5 g in close and balanced games, but unbalanced games did not present differences. Match periods and match outcome influenced the workload profile of elite-level referees. Thus, simulated training conditions are necessary to face competition in optimal conditions.