Call for halt on young players heading balls
Concussion expert says under-18s are in danger Fears grow over effect of football on women
The brain doctor who inspired a Hollywood film in the United States has urged football to respond to its dementia crisis by introducing an immediate ban on heading by children below the age of 18.
Bennet Omalu, the neuropathologist who discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in American football players and was played by Will Smith in the film Concussion, also likened what he calls a “public health issue” to how the health damage of smoking was only gradually acknowledged in the 1960s and 1970s.
Research by the Glasgow Brain Injury Research Group has found that former professional footballers are 3½ times more likely to die from neurological diseases than the general population.
Omalu is not surprised by the results and, although the precise cause of these diseases is unknown and wider health benefits were found from playing football, he believes children must be protected and that heading should ultimately be eliminated.
“Begin with the children,” Omalu said. “There should not be any heading of the ball below the age of 18. Why 18? Because that is when the human brain becomes fully developed. It is usually the age of adult consent. It is not intelligent for a human being to use his head to stop or deflect a ball travelling at a high velocity. As a society, we should evolve.
“Soccer is the biggest sport in the world and the UK is the pace-setter. It should lead. If they want to seek my advice, I am willing to give it. The question is, ‘Would they approach me to tell them the truth?’ We need to embrace the truth no matter how inconvenient it is and live more intelligent and healthier lives.”
The Football Association does not believe there is sufficient evidence to remove heading from children’s football. Other medical professionals – including Dr Don Williams, a consultant psychiatrist who began assessing the impact of heading and repetitive brain trauma in football almost 40 years ago – fears that the authorities are trapped in a research cycle and says sport should now proceed according to the “precautionary principle” and stop heading among children.
“This principle is important in public health and asserts that when there is scientific uncertainty about a controversial matter, the way forward must be decided by erring on the side of caution,” Williams said.
Omalu also believes that additional allowances should be made for how, until the age of 12, children have less-developed spatial awareness and dexterity and so are more susceptible to collisions and falls.
“The world is intelligent enough to come up with new ways that children can play soccer safely,” he said. “We need some sustained systematic behavioural changes. If you took heading from soccer, soccer would still survive and be even, perhaps, a more entertaining sport.”
Omalu’s warnings about American football players were initially disputed in the US, but the families of former NFL players suffering from dementia were eventually awarded funds from a $1 billion (£0.8 billion) compensation budget.
“No sport should be banned but, just like any other public health endeavour, there needs to be legislative tools to induce change, especially when it comes to children who are the most vulnerable and valuable of our society,” he said. “What we are dealing with is risk management. You can never reduce risk to zero but you do whatever you can to mitigate the risk.
“We don’t need to attack the sport. We need to develop another narrative of education for parents, children, coaches so they make informed and intelligent decisions.”
Heading for children under 10 is already banned in the US and a study has been launched into head trauma among women footballers, who are at greater risk of concussion. Michelle Akers and Brandi Chastain, who were part of the US teams who won both the World Cup and the Olympics during the 1990s, will take part in a study that will track 20 former elite players who are now over 40.
Akers, who was renowned for her aerial quality, now suffers chronic migraines, while Chastain says that she experiences occasional short-term memory lapses.