Damning new report.
Author criticizes the recent recommendations on heading in practice as not being evidenced based (no evidence that 10 is a meaningful threshold)…and then suggests that maybe changes should be made at the youth and community level to protect against this effect. Not only is that not evidenced based either, players at that level are not exposed to anything like the frequency of events as professionals are and so based on our current understanding not at anything like the same risk(repeated small events repeated over and over and over again).
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Professor Stewart maybe headed the ball too many times.
Am i the only one who thinks football will could be a better game without heading?
Also it’s players health, let’s not forget that.
They could outlaw it the same way they did with the tackle from behind.
Head the ball and it’s an auto FK and a yellow card… it would soon stamp it out.
I maybe biased against this as my dad has recently been diagnosed with Dementia (non sports related) and it is a fucking vile illness
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Sorry to hear that, mate. 
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Cheers. Ye it’s been a rough 18 months but there ya go.
Not convinced personally. It would essentially eliminate corners as the keeper would always catch/punch the ball every time.
I do think it worthwhile continuing to investigate the effects and considering ways of reducing the risk.
The problem is that reducing the risk (headwear or lighter balls) you won’t have the results for 15-20 years.
I think I’ve seen a stat that a very low percentage of goals are scored from a corner. Which is why the big teams tend to play short
It’s a terrible disease, but this would be the biggest overhaul in how an organized sport was played in history and done so without evidence to support it. The link is very definitely there. What is not known, and what is incredibly difficult to determine, is what is the threshold above which heading becomes a clinical problem.
Forgive my lack of knowledge on this debate but are there any cases of dementia in footballers who played the game in the say late 80’s/90’s/00’s,when i’d assume ball technology changed the weight,who never played in the 50’s,60’s and 70’s,where the balls were alot harder? and if so,is it a significant number to put it down to just heading any football in general?
My guess would be the lighter balls will reduce the brain injury, but probably not eradicate it at all.
If a player was in his 30s in the 90s he would be in his 50-60s now, which would probably be when this illness strikes so much guess would be that pool
Would be very low numbers anyway.
It was way before my time but apparently the balls way back we’re horrible to play with, let alone head and worse in the rain.
Not sure if anybody on these forums is old enough to remember how bad they were?
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I remember some normal leather footballs as a kid in the late 70’s/early 80’s that were pretty heavy (especially when wet),probably nothing like those old brown laced up ones that look like a canon ball, but the worse ball i ever played with (not an official football) was a Kevin Keegan branded one from the 70’s/80’s,it was a hard,thick rubber one (orange/red colour),covered in thousands of little rubber circles,you just couldn’t head it,it would knock you out and if smacked in the face with it,it would sting like a bitch and you’d see stars for ages.
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Yeah, they only have data on players who played into the 90s for exactly that reason. It’s really difficult to get data on the effects equipment changes since then have already made.
Lighter balls do not end nasty head clashes, which are very likely a part of the problem. The data may not be perfect, but it seems obvious heading a football repetitively over multiple years is a problem. Would be weird to see football without heading. Height would no longer be such an advantage, and we might end up with more shorter, faster players who could turn more quickly. Would change the game in a big way.
Don’t hold your breath, though. American football shouldn’t even be played anymore. It’s a menace to brain health, to joint health. NFL players have much shorter lifespans than the average human. But money does the talking in big time sports.
Why don’t we just ban all contact sports then? We’ll just play badminton, oh wait, those shuttlecocks can cause a nasty bruise. Everybody just stay home and watch the soaps.
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Yes it would, it’ll be crap!
That’s too risky. You could roll your ankle getting out of bed - best to just never leave your bed I think
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I think you’re probably right.
Ceiling might collapse.
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