Don’t kick the can down the road again… families want action now

THE Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee report is finally here. It says the FA and PFA didn’t do enough (tell us something we don’t know), and the UK’s workplace health and safety regulator hasn’t been regulating sport like it should. It’s good to hear MPs recognise that but what I want to know is what happens now? That’s what the families of former footballers suffering with dementia are asking. We don’t want the can kicked down the road for the (insert ridiculous number here) time. We want action. Football still needs a limit on heading in training to be introduced. Does this hurry that up? It still needs temporary concussion substitutes to come in, after Euro 2020 threw up several examples of how the ‘extra permanent substitute’ simply doesn’t work. Is that going to happen? It still needs coaches to be educated on why it’s unnecessary for children to be heading the ball. Will that be set up? I’d give up my own time to go on a Zoom call with, say, Under 16 coaches. I’ve done that before with clubs near me. But shouldn’t the FA be setting this up? Guidelines say primary school kids should not be heading the ball, but some youth coaches might be reluctant to make changes to the way they were coached as kids themselves. They need educating, so let’s give them that education. The DCMS recommendation that UK Sport should pay for a medical officer at every major sporting event is interesting — I wonder to what level that should be. Every Premier League game? Every Championship game? Lower? As much as I’d like changes to happen now, I expect this to be a slow process because football works at snail’s pace.