Under-11s are banned from heading footballs

‘It should be mandatory’

PRIMARY school children have been banned from heading footballs in training sessions to avoid the risk of brain damage in later life.

The Football Association issued guidelines yesterday saying there should be no heading during training sessions for under-11s, and that it should only be introduced gradually from under-12 to under-16.

It has also recommended that heading drills for those under-18 should be reduced.

Children will still be allowed to head balls in competitive games but officials say younger players rarely do so in matches.

FA chief executive Mark Bulling-ham said last night: ‘This guidance is an evolution of our current guidelines and will help coaches and teachers to reduce and remove repetitive and unnecessary heading from youth football.’

The guidelines, which are being implemented with immediate effect, come after a major study funded by the FA found professional footballers are three and a half times more likely to die of dementia than anyone else.

The study of 7,680 Scottish footballers born between 1900 and 1976 also found they were four times more likely to die of motor neurone disease and twice as likely from Parkinson’s.

The research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in October, did not assess the exact cause of the neurological conditions but most experts agree that repeatedly heading the ball is likely to be the source.

That view was reinforced by the finding that goalkeepers – who do not head the ball as much as outto field players – were half as likely to receive medication for dementia as those in other positions.

Professor Willie Stewart, the Glasgow University neuropathologist who led the study, last night welcomed the new guidelines, saying: ‘I’m encouraged to see these changes. A lot more research is needed …[but] it is sensible to act reduce exposure to the only recognised risk factor so far.’

He added: ‘I would, however, like to see these proposals introduced as mandatory, rather than voluntary as present, and a similar approach to reduce heading adopted in the wider game of football, not just in youth football.’

The changes come after years of campaigning by the family of former West Brom and England star Jeff Astle who died aged 59 in 2002 with severe brain damage linked to the repeated impact of heading footballs.

His daughter Dawn, 51, yesterday welcomed the guidelines for helping ‘to avoid exposing children’s brains to risk of trauma’.

But she added: ‘For over-18s now there certainly should be some guidelines for training.’