Heads you lose in this game
ARE we heading for the day when putting bonce on ball vanishes from the game of football? It seems to me a matter of when, not if. The Scottish FA has dipped a toe into these waters by announcing a ban on professional players heading the ball in training a day either side of matches.
But youth football is up to its knees in the idea that heading does not belong in the modern game. Junior teams in England have been trialling what is likely to become football law in 2023-24 – a ban on heading in all competitive matches for under-12s. Deliberately heading the ball is now punishable by an indirect free-kick, and preventing a goal-scoring opportunity can earn a red card.
Parents on the sidelines no longer shout “get your head on it” but “duck!”.
It doesn’t take a genius to realise that repeatedly hitting your head with an inflated leather ball is probably not good for you; that, over time, the impact on the skull is likely to affect what’s inside – the brain. But it’s only since the death of Eastwood-born professional footballer Jeff Astle that it’s really come to the fore. His dementia was a direct result of heading the ball during a career spent largely with West Bromwich Albion.
Now the science has backed up what many suspected. Researchers at the University of Glasgow looked at the health records of around 8,000 Scottish professional footballers compared with 23,000 members of the general population. The footballers were almost four times more likely to develop neurodegenerative disease.
If you’ve been the parent of a young footballer, you might be feeling slightly guilty. I do. Both my boys have played competitively since primary school days and – egged on by me – heading has been a big part of their game. Should I have thought more about the risks? Perhaps, but life is full of dangers and gambles. Do we stop kids cycling for fear that they might fall off, or from karate in case they’re injured? Should we make cricket safer by using a tennis ball?
If safety becomes the prime concern in sport at children’s level, how will that feed into adult life? No more mountaineering, skiing, motor racing or skydiving?
Perhaps someone will design a helmet that allows footballers to head in complete safety. Otherwise, I’d give the practice another 10 to 15 years before it’s outlawed completely.
Just imagine: there’d be no place in the game for the big, lumbering centre-half, unable to use the main weapon in his armoury – his head – when a ball’s played “over the top” to a whippet-like striker.