Football not safer than contact sports after all

great article vanilla gorilla- i am sick to death of hearing sockah is a non-contact pussy sport... football as it should be rightfully called is a hard game... be it headers, or tackles... injuries are inevitable & I have seen some sickening breaks & blows that would make poor yow yeh's (recover quick mate) compound leg injury look tame. refer to cisse's injury at liverpool etc etc unfortunately the diving fools of our great game tarnish our game "hardness" & haters will hate. cmon FIFA do something about this blight on football NOW!!! oh well i enjoy all football codes but every dog & milks penalties these days- watch Issac Luke at Souths! cheers all

Synthetic footballs have improved Football, they are light, allow for more control and make the game faster. Banning the header would be a disaster, there is nothing like a perfect cross being powered home by a perfect header.

Soccer is dangerous enough for injuries from the hips down. In comparisons (in the Aust context for example) to Aust Footy, taking into account 11 on the pitch for 93 mins vs 18 on the pitch for 120 mins - - the ratio of knees, ankles, hips, broken legs etc doesn't make soccer look 'safe'. And that's even with 6 inch armour plated shin guards built from WWII King Tiger tanks!!!! re headers - what I always ponder is that they seem to exist now mainly because the ball got changed (from leather to synthetic). I really wonder had that not happened, (the ball change) then would headers have survived to this era of new really well drained football fields/pitches? The thing about the header is that it was NOT part of the design of the game back in London in the early 1860s. The Londoners in years after were reported to laugh at the Sheffield footballers who headed the ball. The header was not a designed component but was NOT illegal within the (limited) set of rules. So, the header was a loophole. Hypothetical time then - - - At what point - - would people accept that loophole being closed?? Were the header conclusively proven to be dangerous and thus an unacceptable risk - would soccer fans be able to accept a banning of the header, and thus pretty well making the game truly 'football' (outside the sideline throw in and the goalie!!).

Jeff Astle? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-16610029 The widow of a former England footballer has said the FA has never accepted how the game contributed to her husband's death. Jeff Astle, who played for West Bromwich Albion during the 1960s and 1970s, died 10 years ago. A coroner ruled that the 59-year-old had suffered brain damage caused by heading heavy leather footballs. The FA said "conflicting opinions" remained on the possible effects of heading a football over time. Laraine Astle, from Netherseal, in Derbyshire, said: "I don't think they [the Football Association] want to hold their hands up and own up [that] the game that we loved proved to be a killer.

I can understand where the article is coming from but if like most of us here I assume who played with the old footballs of the the 70's well yes they hurt when wet . I personally dont see the modern correlation between the new modern footballs of today and head trauma even when wet, I use the modern football and it doesn't even really feel like it's even hitting your head half the time compared to the panelled balls of the 70's I can only imagine what they would've been like in the 50's . Most observers of the game would realise that heading a football at an elite level (Barca, Real ) is quite low if you watch those teams on a regular basis the emphasis of the game at an elite level is to play the ball on the ground on most occasions personally I don't see heading the football that bigger part of the game in general .

Let me just add to what I said previously The Cattery about kids doing very little heading & coincidentally(or is it) then practicing headers round the age you state. For some reason round the age of 13 or 14 we started to practice heading the ball in our street games. I clearly remember getting the ball up letting it bounce once then lobbing it towards another lad to head hopefully into a goal(the beginning of a cobbled lane) & past a second lad who was the goalkeeper. By the light of a gas lamp I might add . As we got better it developed more into trying to replicate a corner ,but initially was done to try to get the feel of the ball on the head & develop accuracy in heading towards goal. For me there is a debate here ,but not about the subject of this article ,its a debate about how much heading is necessary in relation to the creativity of a football match. After all their is only one reason you challenge for the ball at that height with your head ,hands are a no no. Having studied heading technique for coaching ,but also having played as an old fashioned centre half for me heading in this fashion is a lottery. Along with the aerial ping pong you sometimes see in midfield. This is in sharp contrast to the foot skills of football where you can either hoof & hope(equivalent of challenging a header) or develop the fine skills of Messi etc & the creativity that accompanies that in terms of cohesive team play. This cannot be achieved with a header. The only time for me a heading skills come close for me in the overall creativity of a football match is when heading for goal. However that is another debate perhaps for another time.

Another angle for your story Vanilla.There was a player played for Glasgow Celtic at centre-forward back in the 50's called Billy Mc Phail who was a renowned "header" of the football scoring many goals with his head. When he retired he became a very successful business man & some years later ,he was diagnosed as having a brain tumor that ultimately caused his death. If I remember correctly his widow brought a legal action against the Scottish Football Association seeking compensation of sorts. I think the case was dismissed through lack of definitive proof of what had caused the fatal illness. I think you will find this is where these investigations started but as many have said, the balls being used were very different in McPhail's day ,not only were they heavy and water absorbing but they had a leather lace on the outer skin as well,which ,if protruding at all,could not only raise a bump, but could cut quite deeply as well Hope this helps.jb

It's great to hear that soccer is just as unsafe as the other codes. But where's the statistics to show this. Just a study in potential effects of heading a ball.

WE have all read or seen reports by Doctors saying tobacco use is not bad for you, and can be beneficial in many ways… Seems to me a similar type of report…

I agree on the need to learn to head the ball correctly for various game situations. At present with my U9's this is not critical (few opportunities in games where this occurs) and they are not confident yet for the most part. I'll re-evaluate as the season goes on but there are other things they will need to learn before diving headers for goal ;-)

It can often be very innocuous things that do it to. I was at a Under-15s premiers match where two players contested a header and there was very light head contact and they dropped, but the ball was being cleared so I didn't stop proceedings until one of the other kids called out and I looked again. One of the kids had developed a bump on his head the size of an egg within ten seconds and ended up going off in an ambulance. Have seen a pretty high rate of injury watching state league and amateurs. People need to remember, even if people aren't rugby tackling, the impacts are for the most part coming against two zones: below the knee and above the shoulders. Now lets remember, the AFL actually prohibits contact in either of these zones and will award free kicks for infringements.

Griffo this is a separate discussion, but at some point from U13s onwards the kids need to learn to head, even if you want to keep the ball on the carpet, crosses remain a worthwhile attacking weapon, and you have to teach kids to get on the end of them, conversely, you need to teach defenders to get their heads to it before the opposition. I would have that that by the time they are 14 they should be competent at heading the ball.

Vanilla I'll take my naive experience of having being brought up in a football city going back 4 generations or more over any academic study. The only emotive effects I saw growing up were in men who had been in 2 World Wars. That showed up in them drinking 15 pints of beer a night instead of eight. Academics don't have a monopoly on whats right & wrong with society & perhaps should listen to the real life experiences of "Joe Blow" from the streets every now & again.

I have read a number of articles in the past that suggests a link between repetitive head impact and delayed onset brain disorders such as epilepsy by heading footballs as juniors. This 'suggestion' is not new and I think there would be more made of this if there was an obvious link between a high frequency of headers per game and any chronic conditions emerging in early-mid adult life. The obvious example here is boxing. From personal observation from playing since a 5 year old and now coaching and observing juniors games is that I believe there is less risk today than in the past. The differences in the junior game today compared to my day are quite significant. The main differences are that the ball sizes used now are smaller (not size 5), kids are encouraged to play on the ground more, and 'keepers are encourage to roll the ball out on the ground rather than boot the ball high and long (particularly in the early years U8-U11, no kicking allowed U8/9). Also as mentioned above, kids are not that keen on heading when they are under 10 - I know from my own team that out of 9 players in U9 level, 2/9 would probably head the ball in game at most. I assessed heading technique and willingness to do so the other week at training and am going to continue to encourage foot technique and off-the ball movement this year. Looking at older youth games U11 - U14 around the local area, I have yet to see much balls being bombed by the 'keeper, let alone any headers from those. I think parents, if they are thinking football is safer, will continue to register their children to play. 'Safer' is not the same as 'risk-free'. Those that go on to other sports in older youth ages will continue to do so, regardless of risks in those sports, or the risks of playing football.

A very worthwhile discussion article. The long-term consequences of head impacts in sport is definitely a cause for concern. The higher incidence of brain-related degenerative disease suffered by NFL players & boxers compared to the rest of the population has been reported to be significant. I'm not sure if there is any evidence of a higher incidence of degenerative brain disease amongst the ex-football demographic but, even if there is no higher incidence, it makes sense to err on the side of caution and protect the head. My knowledge of the development of the skull is, at best, rudimentary so it would be useful for an expert to clearly indicate what age a child's skull has developed the rigidity that is comparable to the adult skull. Prior to this age, I think the suggestion of "no headers" is appropriate. The FFA's National Curriculum's move to SSGs for kids will indirectly facilitate a "not header" policy since it's rare to play the ball in the air when playing SSG. PS: Current footballs are made of extremely soft & light-weight poly-urethane based materials. I grew up playing with balls that felt like rocks when they absorbed water & you had to head them on a cold winter's day.

Believe me they were seriously hard & heavy added to by the mud at times. Then again,where i grew up, the above could be applied to some of the men who played football. If you wanted to see them at their best a kick around after the pub closed Sunday lunchtime(2pm) was a rare sight indeed. With the emphasis on kick. Women & football,too busy cooking Sunday lunch.

Futbanous I was thinking something similar - if there is a possibility of replicating boxers' punch drunkeness, wouldn't it have been noticeable by now after 150 years of heading footballs (especially in the old days when they were made of leather, and in a European winter, would have been seriously hard).

My memory of learning to head as a kid was that if you misjudged it and it hit you on the top of the scone, that certainly made your brains rattle. But even at senior level, being competent, it's not hard to misjudge it in the heat of battle amongst a group of players and have the ball hit something tender, like your eye socket or the bridge of your nose, which isn't a very pleasant experience.