Football’s concussion problem: time to face the unthinkable
Paul
GARDNER
GLOBAL VIEWstudy carried out in Scotland indicating
that former professional players were
three-and-a-half times as likely to die
from dementia and other neurological
diseases as non-players.
Suddenly, FIFA was said to be open
to the idea of temporary substitutes,
while English FA Chairman Greg Clarke
went so far as to admit a “causal link”
between football and dementia.
The Scottish FA now had the idea of
limiting the amount of heading with a
ban on heading for youngsters, aged
from six to 11, in training. The English
FA introduced similar regulations.
While a step in the right direction
the restrictions do not go far enoughThere is no convincing reason that
explains football’s persistently casual
attitude to its concussion problem
and any complacency there might
have been should have come to a
screeching halt in 2002 – the year
former West Bromwich Albion
centre-forward Jeff Astle died.
Astle had been a powerful header
of the ball and an inquest found he
had suffered brain damage, with the
coroner, Dr Andrew Haigh, defining it
as an “industrial injury”.
This was the moment for football to
act, to let the world know it had heard
Haigh’s accusation and was doing all it
could to ensure the safety of millions
of players. But football – in this case
the English FA – blew it. Faced with
the possibility that one of its skills
might be killing players it announced
it would begin a 10-year survey of
ex-players to establish, or rule out,
the presence of brain damage.
In short, “more research” was
needed, words that are widely
understood to indicate a delaying
tactic – such as used by the tobacco
industry when trying to defend itself
against the smoking-causes-cancer
accusation. A 10-year wait for results,when immediate action was called for?
What was needed, and what would
have proved that head injuries were
being taken seriously, was a critical
review of the sport’s rules to see if
changes could be made to reduce
the frequency of heading.
But football saw no need to
investigate itself. The rules of the sport
that had killed Astle were sacrosanct.
There would be no changes.
Incredibly, after Haigh’s warning,
nothing was done by football for 10
years. It was not until 2012 that FIFA
announced its “concussion protocol”- but got it wrong yet again. The
protocol deals with the care of
concussion sufferers; it does nothing to
prevent concussions from happening.
Another five years went by before
UEFA entered into the concussion fray.
It was “seeking research proposals” to
study the risk of heading among youth
players. More research, but still no
action. It also became clear that the
strict requirements of the protocol
were simply not being enforced.
Finally, in 2019, after the sport had
wasted 17 years pussyfooting around
the issue, came a flurry of action. It
was caused by the publication of a
Powerful header...Jeff Astle (dark kit,
centre) climbs above the QPR defence
in the 1967 League Cup FinalDanger...youngsters
in a heading duelTHE WORLD THIS MONTH