In Scottish professional football, header training is to be restricted with immediate effect. The new guidelines are based on the results of a medical study that found professional football players have a more than three-fold increased risk of serious neurological damage.
The Scottish FootballAssociation (SFA) has introduced a limit on the number of headers in training. Like several UK media outlets including BBC and “Guardians” report, training sessions specifically aimed at heading the game with repeated headers, such as training crosses and standards, should take place at most once a week in the future. One day before and one day after a game, there should be no beheading at all in training. For the games, however, there are no restrictions for the time being.
The new guidelines are set to come into effect immediately and will be binding on all Scottish professional leagues. The association was reacting to the alarming results of a long-term study by the university Glasgow.
Study: “Measurable Impairment of Memory” from Headers
The scientific study had shown that former footballers are more than three times as likely to develop dementia or other serious brain diseases. “We’ve found that after a series of headers, there is measurable memory impairment for up to 48 hours.”he quoted Guardians the chief physician Dr. John MacLeanthe one from the SFA was commissioned with the study. So the goal must be “Generally limit headers in training to limit possible long-term cumulative effects.”
The team from the university Glasgow compared the causes of death in more than 7,600 former professional footballers who died between 1900 and 1976 with those of a control group of 23,000 people in the general population. The rate of deaths from neurodegenerative diseases and prescribed medication for dementia were higher in the group of former footballers, the study found.
Several World Cup heroes from 1966 suffer from dementia
The possible link between heading the ball and brain disorders has long been an issue on the island, as have several of the late 1966 World Cup heroes Jack Charlton, Martin Peters, Ray Wilson or Nobby Stiles were suffering from dementia. Lawsuits and claims for compensation from survivors are threatened against the English Football Association.
Scottish football is already at the forefront of youth development alongside the British associations of England and Northern Ireland. For young people under the age of twelve, headballs have been categorically prohibited during training since 2020.
Monitoring header restrictions in training?
The associations in English professional football, including the premier leaguehad also introduced a restriction on headers in training last year, so only ten should be allowed “higher forced“Headers, i.e. headers with increased effort and physical strain. But there was already criticism at the time – especially about who should monitor compliance with the restrictions and sanction them if necessary.
Exactly this question now also arises with the new header guideline from Scotland. According to its own statements, the Scottish association had consulted with 50 professional teams from men’s and women’s football before the new training restrictions were passed. More than 70 percent of professional clubs want to support the new guidelines. The implementation and monitoring of the requirements in daily training should be reserved for the clubs.