English soccer players want to restrict headers

We just couldn’t let this stuff go …

Heading in training sessions must be immediately restricted amid growing concerns about brain injury diseases among former professional footballers, the players’ union in England said on Friday.

The decision by the Professional Footballers’ Association followed a meeting of its management committee which assessed research into dementia and neurodegenerative diseases.

“Science has been developing quickly in this area, and we need to make an urgent intervention based on the evidence that is available now,” PFA chairman Ben Purkiss said.

“A reduction of heading in training is a practical and straightforward step. We will be engaging with members, former members and their families to work on this area within the scope of the PFA’s new advisory group, where decisions will be made on the basis of expert advice.”

It was announced this month that Manchester United and England great Bobby Charlton was diagnosed with dementia. In July, Bobby’s brother and fellow England World Cup winner, Jack, died at 83 after being diagnosed with the disease. Nobby Stiles, who was also part of England’s only World Cupwinning side, died after battling dementia.

“In the short term, football cannot carry on as it is,” PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor said. “There is a big issue here, and based on the increasing evidence available, it is clear we need to take immediate steps to monitor and reduce heading within training.”

Research published in 2019 by the University of Glasgow found former male professional players had a 3.5 times higher rate of death from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. In absolute terms, that risk remained relatively small — 1.7 percent among former players and 0.5 percent for the comparison group. Former players also were more likely to be prescribed dementia medicines than the others were.

Researchers compared the causes of death of 7,676 Scottish men who played soccer with 23,000 similar men from the general population born between 1900 and 1976. Over a median of 18 years of study, 1,180 players and 3,807 of the others died.

They found footballers were less likely to die of common causes such as heart disease and cancer compared with the general population but more likely to die from dementia.

Trivia question

On this date in 1949, Bill Veeck sold the Cleveland Indians to a local syndicate headed by Ellis Ryan. What was the sale price?