Footballers call for ban on heading in training

Football players have expressed their support for the Professional Footballers’ Association’s (PFA) proposals to ban heading during training, says the union’s assistant chief executive Simon Barker.

Last week, the PFA revealed it was in favour of preventing players from heading the ball in training, amid concerns over the number of former footballers who have developed dementia since retiring. Nobby Stiles, a member of England’s 1966 World Cup-winning squad, became the latest high-profile former player to die after suffering from the disease.

Stiles’ former England team-mates, Jack Charlton, Martin Peters and Ray Wilson, also had dementia before they passed away, while Sir Bobby Charlton – Jack’s brother – was diagnosed recently.

Last year, the PFA Charity-funded study ‘FIELD’ found footballers were three-and-a-half times more likely to die from a neurodegenerative condition than the general population. The Football Association has promised to fund research into links between heading and brain diseases, and it has already updated its guidance to say children under the age of 12 should not be heading the ball.

While the PFA’s proposals to remove heading from training would be a fundamental change to the sport, Barker says they have strong support, telling Sky Sports News: “We had a management committee meeting with current players and they were fully behind [the plans].
“[They] wanted us to come out and try and lobby the governing bodies and the leagues in respect of taking this up and looking at this issue, alongside many other issues, about this worry.
“It’s normally in training that most of the heading actually goes on, rather than games.”
Barker says the PFA is also working to introduce concussion substitutions – where players can be temporarily replaced while they are assessed for concussion – into the laws of the game as another way of protecting players’ long-term health.