Footballers and dementia

Just to add to what you have written:

A major study carried out by the University of Glasgow in the autumn of 2019, under the supervision of Dr Willie Stewart, showed that professional footballers are three-and-a-half times more likely to develop dementia than non-footballers.

“The Stiles family asked us to look at Nobby’s brain and try to give them some understanding of what his pathology was, and how it related to his career in football,” explains Dr Stewart.

“In doing a thorough investigation into the pathology, we discovered that what he was suffering from was a condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is a degenerative brain pathology which we associate with exposure to head injury and head impacts.”

www.skysports.com/football/story-telling/11095/12174891/the-boys-of-66-how-englands-world-cup-heroes-are-losing-their-battle-with-dementia

My grandson loves his football. I really, really want to tell him to leave a ball rather than head it but I know he'd agree with me and then ignore.
Rugby has put all sorts of restrictions on what young players can do and I think football should do so too. I'd be happier if football meant 'you can touch the ball with your feet' and there were strict rules about how to deal with a ball in the air as there are already in hockey.
Very sad to see so many great footballers brought low by this dreadful disease.

The FA has already sent out new rules to clubs and coaches that children under the age of 7 should not be allowed to head the ball.

More is probably required but it is a start.

Why use the head at all I don’t see why it can’t be kept to feet only, it wouldn’t make the game any less interesting
I believe heading the ball should be banned from now on they have enough knowledge of the dangers

I completely agree with Bluebelle. the game is called football, not _head and foot_ball.

M0nica

I completely agree with Bluebelle. the game is called football, not _head and foot_ball.

100% agree with this. Head contact with the ball needs to be banned and while they are at it boxing needs to be completely banned. That barbaric “sport” is nothing of the sort.

It will be too late for some men whose careers have been in football but I firmly agree heading the ball should be banned now as the evidence is there how much damage can be suffered by an unprotected head.

My nearly 70 year old OH has memories of heading a water-laden leather football at school and university. Today’s ball is plastic, lighter and doesn’t absorb water.

So that makes it ok Ladyleft have you ever tried heading a modern day football coming at you at 90 miles per hour (The average speed of a hard kick) No I thought not

Whilst I agree with what’s been said on here and the rules advocated by the FA this needs to be driven by FIFA, IFAB and UEFA too, so it’s from the top down, worldwide. Then heading the ball will gradually be totally removed from the game.

You either have to ban it totally or not at all. It would be silly to introduce a limit to the number of times per week because the ball doesn't conveniently arrive in your path when you want it and not when you don't.

'Ladyleftfieldlover* Does it make a difference to your dementia what type of ball caused the brain injury that led to the dementia?

Ladyleftfieldlover research on dementia in football, based on health records of around 8,000 former professional football players in Scotland, showed the findings of increased dementia were the same regardless of the era in which the players competed. The records were from the 1930’s to the 1990’s.

The risk to goal keepers was the same as in the general population. Outfielders were 4 times as likely to develop a neurodegenerative disease and defenders were 5 times as likely. It’s to do with force and angles. Arguably old style footballs could not be kicked so hard or as fast as new ones. It also depends how often you head the ball.

The Premier League have restricted the number of times a week a player is permitted to head a high powered ball in training to 10. All other adult football is similarly restricted. Research is being undertaken this season looking towards a formal review of FA guidance next year.

The game would have to change a great deal to take heading out altogether and it would need to be FIFA lead. As we stop youngsters playing headers however, then given time it could extend into the adult game. We still permit boxing, however, albeit with similar restrictions, so we shall see.

Now they’re inventing training apps with virtual reality headsets and apps to encourage heading balls at a certain angle. I’ll be dead before they find out if any of those stops banging a speeding ball with your head contributing to the likelihood of dementia.
To me it seems like the 20 mph limits-you’ll still get hurt but you’re less likely to be killed. Possibly living with mild dementia still seems a poor option.

OK. I assumed the weight of the ball being headed would be an important factor. Obviously I’m wrong.

I read that they have always weighed about a pound, but I think the older ones, when the leather became wet, must have gained weight during the game. I think you’re right about that being more dangerous, especially when you think of how often it rains in the football season.

Why not make head protectors compulsory, as some of the rugby players wear. Surely that would give some protection at least.

Rugby players don’t head

That is true 25 Avalon but I would have thought something similar, perhaps specifically made for the purpose of absorbing the shock of a ball hitting the skull isn’t beyond the realms of possibility in this day and age. I have absolutely no knowledge of the game of football apart from what is on our screens so might well be talking utter balls (pardon the pun ?)

May not be so easy Bumblebee. Footballers are taught to head with their foreheads as this is the strongest and ‘safest’ part of the head so you would need a helmet just above the eyes where the ball cannot catch on an edge. Also in making it strong enough it could be dangerous for other players. The safest answer is to ban heading in football.

i don't think any kind of head protector would help much.
those scrum caps in rugby are for keeping one's ears on, also to protect the scalp from cuts and abrasions.
if you imagine some eggs in a box. if you wrap that box in bubble wrap then drop it on the ground, it is quite likely the eggs will break.
similarly it is the movement of the brain inside the skull, being bashed against it, and twisting, that causes the damage.
that is why some people think the use of helmets in amateur boxing can be a negative, as it increases the target area ie makes one's head wider, so easier to hit, and the referred jolt to the brain is as bad as to an unhelmeted head.

i suppose some kind of totally energy=absorbing sponge could be devised, but then it would give no bounce at all, the ball would fall dead, which defeats the game, as well being so cumbersome as not to be practicable.

I wonder how much more evidence of ex footballers with dementia will appear now?
Will the evidence have any impact of the use of heading.
How do you feel about your GC playing football in the light of this evidence?
I’m glad none of mine played, though the injuries they acquire BMX cycling, dancing and skateboarding still worries me.

It would be alright if we were like woodpeckers where the skull is designed for regular impact.