TOP United States football executive Kevin Payne said today that the rest of the world will eventually catch up with the US pioneering ban on heading in youth football.
The Professional Footballers Association has advocated the move, which would apply to all under-10s and European football’s governing body Uefa said in January it would consider implementation if its own study provided sufficient evidence.
A major study into the long-term effects of heading and potential links to dementia and brain damage commissioned by the Football Association and PFA began two months ago, but initial findings are not expected for at least three years.
However, the US has already taken proactive action with a ban in place since 2015.
Payne, the chief executive of US Club Soccer and national association member of the United States Football Federation principally involved in youth football, was involved in the discussions which led to restrictions being brought in.
“While there is not a lot of direct evidence or research which draws a straight-line correlation between heading a ball at young ages and potential issues later in life, we think it is a logical assumption as younger children’s technique will not be as good and their brains are not as fully developed,” he said.
“Until such time as that research has been completed and there are conclusions to be drawn, we thought it was much safer to err on the side of caution.
“When you are talking about someone’s brain, it is a big deal and we need to be almost overly protective in this area.
“Part of the issue is that no-one really knows what are the consequences of heading a ball at this young age.
“Until we do know the answer, the only responsible course of action is to do everything possible to minimise the chance of it creating problems.
“There were some individuals who were not happy about it and I am sure there are still the old guard who think it is silly not to allow heading.
“But we think we are ahead of the curve on this. We think it is very possible that other countries will end up having a little bit of the same thing.”
The regulations have a huge support structure behind them which helps coaches and parents diagnose and monitor injuries with any head trauma flagged up with a warning to seek medical attention.
Dev Mishra, an orthopaedic surgeon at Stanford University, founded Sideline Sports Doc which offers an online course to help injury recognition that has amassed 50,000 coaches and staff members in just over 18 months.
“If we could find a way for these coaches to have some of this basic recognition, maybe we could reduce the severity of injuries, especially concussion,” said Mishra.
“How do you figure out this kid has had a concussion and how do you remove them from play so they don’t have another?
“It is a very simple four-step algorithm which attempts to mimic for a coach what we as trained physicians do on the field of play.”
However, brain injury charity Headway has questioned the validity of picking an age at which youngsters are allowed to begin heading, while calling for urgent research to be carried out.
“It is important that all measures to protect the welfare of children playing sport are introduced without discouraging participation,” a Headway spokesman said.
“When it comes to heading footballs, the reality is that we don’t have enough evidence yet to draw a meaningful conclusion and that is something that should have been rectified a long time ago.
“Introducing bans on children heading footballs, using an arbitrary age of 10, for example, without robust evidence to support such a move, is not something Headway currently supports.
“While well-meaning, we have concerns that the unintended consequences could include dissuading children to be active and play football when in very young age groups heading is not commonplace.
