The Football Federation (FA) will temporarily try to ban hitting the ball with the head in Under 12 matches, with the possibility of making it definitive from the 2023-2024 season.

It arises from this measure, already implemented in test matches in recent months studies that link tests with a greater tendency to suffer from degenerative diseases in the brain.

The FA has been authorized by the International Board, which sets the rules of the game, to introduce it on an experimental basis in the 2022-2023 season and will be a coordinated initiative through the FA’s network of training centers, leagues, clubs and different schools of the country.

“If the test is successful, the goal is to eliminate the headers for all Under 12 and lower tier games of the 2023-24 season,” the FA said in a statement.

Background

In recent years, 1966 world champions with England Jack Charlton (Bobby’s brother) and Nobby Stiles have died of degenerative diseases believed to be related to repeated headbeats.

In addition, Bobby Charlton, also world champion in 1966, suffers from dementia.

The proliferation of these diseases in retired footballers has been the subject of several studies which have established that professional footballers are three and a half times more likely to suffer from degenerative problems.

A study that supports the ban

According to the largest study ever conducted on neurodegenerative diseases in retired players, professional soccer players run five times the risk of developing Alzheimer’s compared to the general population. The increased risk is attributed to the accumulated damage to the brain from the effect of repeatedly hitting the ball with the head.

The research, published in 2020 and directed by Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland, was based on data from 7,676 retired footballers in Scotland, all over the age of 40.

Their health data, including prescribed medications and causes of death for those who died, were obtained from electronic health records. These data were compared with those of 23,028 men of age and social parameters comparable to those of footballers.

The results indicate that professional footballers have a 3.5 times greater risk of developing neurodegenerative disease than the rest of the population. Within these diseases, the most marked increase in Alzheimer’s risk was observed: five times that. The least high – but still an increased risk – for Parkinson’s: double that.

Of the deceased retired footballers, 19% – or nearly one in five – had a neurodegenerative disease that contributed to death. In the rest of the population, the percentage was 6%, or one in 17 people.

The analysis of the drugs prescribed to retired footballers confirms these observations. Their likelihood of taking drugs indicated for dementia is 4.9 times higher than the rest of the population.

The results were presented in the New England Journal of Medicine, considered the most important medical journal in the world, testifying to the rigor and significance of the research.

Three previous studies conducted by specialists from Harvard Medical School (USA) found between 2012 and 2016 that retired footballers usually have alterations in their neurotransmitters, a deterioration of the white matter of the brain and a thinning of the cerebral cortex.

But they were studies with groups of a few dozen volunteers and did not investigate whether this damage leads to neurodegenerative diseases, as Scottish research has now done.

“It’s not just heavy blows that cause symptomatic concussions that increase the risk of neurological disease later in life. Rather, the total duration of exposure to repeated head impacts is associated […] neurodegeneration and neurocognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms ”, points out Robert Stern, of Boston University, in another article published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Despite these findings, the authors of the research point out that “the benefits of physical activity to prevent chronic diseases, including dementias, are well demonstrated.” Their results show, in this sense, that retired footballers tend to have better cardiorespiratory health than the general population, with a 20% lower risk of dying from myocardial infarction.

The researchers also caution that the results recorded with professional footballers cannot be extrapolated to those who play football for fun.

Nor can it be ruled out that the risk is lower in Spain, where they prefer to play the ball on the ground, than in Scotland, with a football culture more prone to aerial play. Nor that it is less for current players than in the past thanks to the changes that have been introduced in the design of the ball.

“Parents of children who hit the ball with their head need not fear that their children are doomed to cognitive decline and dementia; instead they should look at the benefits of exercising and participating in a sport that their children enjoy, ”writes Robert Stern in his article. Nonetheless, he points out, “more research is needed on the neurological consequences of hitting the ball with the head in football, including studies on women and amateur players.”

Sources: EFE and La Vanguardia