FA slow to react
There is no convincing reason that explains football’s persistently casual attitude to its concussion problem and any complacency there might have been should have come to a screeching halt in 2002 – the year former West Bromwich Albion centre-forward Jeff Astle died.
Astle had been a powerful header of the ball and an inquest found he had suffered brain damage, with the coroner, Dr Andrew Haigh, defining it as an “industrial injury”.
This was the moment for football to act, to let the world know it had heard Haigh’s accusation and was doing all it could to ensure the safety of millions of players. But football – in this case the English FA – blew it. Faced with the possibility that one of its skills might be killing players it announced it would begin a 10-year survey of ex-players to establish, or rule out, the presence of brain damage.
In short, “more research” was needed, words that are widely understood to indicate a delaying tactic – such as used by the tobacco industry when trying to defend itself against the smoking-causes-cancer accusation. A 10-year wait for results, when immediate action was called for? What was needed, and what would have proved that head injuries were being taken seriously, was a critical review of the sport’s rules to see if changes could be made to reduce the frequency of heading.
But football saw no need to investigate itself. The rules of the sport that had killed Astle were sacrosanct. There would be no changes.
Incredibly, after Haigh’s warning, nothing was done by football for 10 years. It was not until 2012 that FIFA announced its “concussion protocol” – but got it wrong yet again. The protocol deals with the care of concussion sufferers; it does nothing to prevent concussions from happening.
Another five years went by before UEFA entered into the concussion fray. It was “seeking research proposals” to study the risk of heading among youth players. More research, but still no action. It also became clear that the strict requirements of the protocol were simply not being enforced.
Finally, in 2019, after the sport had wasted 17 years pussyfooting around the issue, came a flurry of action. It was caused by the publication of a study carried out in Scotland indicating that former professional players were three-and-a-half times as likely to die from dementia and other neurological diseases as non-players.
Suddenly, FIFA was said to be open to the idea of temporary substitutes, while English FA Chairman Greg Clarke went so far as to admit a “causal link” between football and dementia.
The Scottish FA now had the idea of limiting the amount of heading with a ban on heading for youngsters, aged from six to 11, in training. The English FA introduced similar regulations.
While a step in the right direction the restrictions do not go far enough
as they do not apply to senior players and are limited to practice sessions. The game itself remains unaffected. Which really makes little sense.
While Europe had been dithering, the Americans made the decisive moves. Since 2016 they have totally banned heading for those below the age of 10 and in older youth games they allow temporary substitutes to play while a full protocol examination of a possibly concussed player is conducted.
Admittedly, it took a lawsuit to jolt the Americans into action, although this was almost a “friendly” lawsuit, brought by a group of parents. It did not seek money, but demanded that FIFA and other football bodies institute more stringent rules to protect players, particularly youngsters, from head injuries.
The threat of further – and much more damaging – legal action hangs ominously over the entire sport of
The threat of further – and much more damaging – legal action hangs ominously over the entire sport of football
football. A class-action suit brought by over 20,000 former grid iron players is expected to cost the NFL $1billion.
The stakes then are high. Football has had 18 years to make the sport safer by adjusting its rules. It could, for instance, ban long, high goal kicks that result in ugly heading duels. Or it could penalise goalkeepers who dive head first at the feet of opponents. But football has, so far, managed to delay any serious changes.
Justice delayed is justice denied. It is time, past time, for the sport to face the likelihood that some changes will be necessary in the way that football is played. The question must be faced: Is the concussion problem leading to a sport without heading? Most football people, I’m quite sure, regard that as simply unthinkable. They may be wrong.