Football headers deadly for players
MBABANE – Medically there is overwhelming evidence that football and other sports have positive impacts on both mental and physical health.
Both benefits are expertly proven so do not doubt them. Nonetheless, the body of a human remains fragile and like in boxing where participants take a lot punches to the head, impacting badly on their brains in the long run (Muhammad Ali suffered Parkinson’s disease for over three decades), footballers now face a similar risk through heading the ball. They are most likely, according to a study in 2019, conducted by Professor Willie Stewart, consultant neuropathologist, to suffer from neurodegenerative brain disease. Dementia is the name of the brain disease or condition footballers face after they have retired and the risk starts from football academies. Dementia is a neurodegenerative disease defined as a chronic or persistent disorder of the mental processes caused by brain disease or injury and marked by memory disorders, personality changes and impaired reasoning, according to stewartslaw.com.
According to insideworldfootball. com, high-force headers are those typically taken after a long pass of more than 35 metres or from crosses, corners and free kicks. England governing bodies defined the ‘high-force’ headers that were now monitored per player at club level.
PROMPT
The English football authorities, in light of this study and demise of England National Team, The Three Lions’legend Nobby Stiles last year got them taking prompt action especially after many of his World Cup 1966-winning teammates had also been diagnosed with the same condition that killed him, dementia. This led to the sporting bodies including the English Premier League, in what was a radical move, to limit the number of ‘high-force headers’among professional and amateur players to 10 per week in training as part of new guidelines.
“This recommendation is provided to protect player welfare and will be reviewed regularly as further research is undertaken to understand more regarding the impact of heading in football. The guidance also recommends clubs develop player profiles that consider gender, age, playing position, the number of headers per match and the nature of these headers. These profiles can be used to ensure that all training sessions reflect the type and quantity of headers that a player could expect to undertake within a match,” a statement said.
The guidelines have been agreed by the Football Association (FA), Premier League (PL), English Football League (EFL), Professional Footballers’Association (PFA) and League Managers Association (LMA). Amateur players have been recommended to only head the ball 10 times a session with only one session a week where heading is practised. Clubs in the Premier League, EFL, Barclays Women’s Super League, FA Women’s Championship, National League, and the Women’s Football Pyramid Tiers three and below, all grassroots football and across the England national teams will receive the guidance as the governing bodies try to address the risk of brain injuries.
PARTNERSHIP
“We already have the most comprehensive guidelines in the world for youth football and now we are introducing, in partnership with the other football bodies, the most comprehensive adult football guidelines anywhere. Our heading guidance now reaches across all players, at all levels of the game. These measures have been developed following studies with coaches and medics and represent a cautious approach whilst we learn more.
“We are committed to further medical research to gain an understanding of any risks within football; in the meantime this reduces a potential risk factor. Overall it is important to remember that the overwhelming medical evidence is that football and other sports have positive impacts on both mental and physical health,” FA Chief Executive Mark Bullingham said.
This news is not good altogether for Eswatini, a third world country where even elite football remains amateur with no stadium that has a proper medical room as envisaged by FIFA and CAF in recent inspections of the banned Mavuso Sports Centre and Somhlolo
ABOUT DEMENTIA:
Dementia is the name of the brain disease or condition footballers face after their careers are over and the risk starts from football academies. Dementia is a neurodegenerative disease defined as a chronic or persistent disorder of the mental processes caused by brain disease or injury and marked by memory disorders, personality changes and impaired reasoning, according to stewartslaw.com.
It killed English legend Nobby Stiles last year and the English football authorities to take prompt action. Nobby’s 1966 World Cup winning teammates with England’s Three Lions were also diagnosed with dementia.
National Stadium.
The risk is there for all footballers from academies to professionals and it is players like Mbabane Highlanders’ forward and Captain Sabelo ‘Sikhali’ Ndzinisa, Mbabane Swallows forward Felix Badenhorst, former Manzini Wanderers’ Lwazi ‘Shana’ Maziya, ex-Green Mamba defender Siyabonga ‘Msholozi’ Mdluli, ex-Green Mamba’s striker Mbuso Gina who have high heading statistics, be it goals or clearances, but they are among those renowned domestically to have been good in the air defensively or in attack.
DEFENSIVELY
Shana was good defensively and in scoring goals, while Sikhali is good with scoring goals using his head and Msholozi as a defender. Gina also used his head for most of his goals during his prime at club and national team level. Efforts to get comment from some of these stars including Sikhali, who has scored through headers often times proved futile while it was easy to tell that they also did not understand this latest football trend to protect players from being killed by dementia once their careers were over.
“I know that in boxing taking a lot of punches to the head can cause fatal problems for one later on in life, but this is news. Football can be so complicated these days I have no idea it has got this far but if it’s there, it’s for the players’ health,” responded a former player on condition of anonymity.
One of the above-listed stars, speaking on condition of anonymity said he once read about this but did not think it was a serious issue to the extent the EPL had taken precautions.
However, he asked to do his research before he could give a comment. Former Denver Sundowns Development Coach Penuel Malinga said even though they knew about the long term complications of the headers in the players, it would take time for Eswatini to understand the new trends in football.
“The challenge we have as a country is that we do not use the scientific aspect of the game here, so it will be very difficult to implement the number of headers per player for now from the academy to the elite league,” Malinga said.
Sihlangu Medical Officer Doctor Melusi Lukhele said the extent of the force of the ball determines the impact of it on the player, but he said heading the ball was not a challenge as the brain is protected by the skull, he, however, said dementia could not be ruled out at a later stage in the life of the footballer.
CONCERN
Meanwhile, one of the reasons for the initiation of the study was the rising concern about the alleged link between head contact in football and the premature death of former football players, including five members of England’s 1966 World Cup team.
The study exposed some staggering figures. It found that ex-football players were five times more likely to develop a type of dementia, namely Alzheimer’s Disease, and had approximately a three and a half times higher death rate due to neurodegenerative disease than the general population.
The findings of the study, coupled with the announcement of several high-profile dementia cases in sports, including Sir Bobby Charlton, led to an outcry for change to protect past, present and future players. This outcry intensified in October 2021 when Sportsmail uncovered that FIFA (the Federation International Football Associations) was aware of the alleged link between football and brain damage in 1984, following the publication of an article in the FIFA magazine. The article titled ‘How Dangerous Is Heading?’ was presented to the FIFA Medical Committee at a meeting on October 26, 1984.