The most controversial decision of officials.
Remember Jan Koller? The two-meter bald Czech at one time scored 16 goals for the Samara Krylya Sovetov and is still the top scorer in the history of his national team. However, Koller was remembered not only for this. For many years, he became an icon for the type of forwards that are commonly called “pillars”.
Tall guys who are in someone else’s penalty area and are waiting for a targeted cross from the flank will have a very hard time in the near future. Football is changing and will never be the same again. And sports officials intend to speed up this process.
In England, they made the most controversial decision.
All for the benefit of the players
The English Football Association has taken a radical step. As an experiment, children under 12 who play football were banned from heading. This is due to recent medical studies, which confirmed that former football players are 3.5 times more likely to suffer from dementia than all other citizens. Women are even more at risk!
According to scientists, the horseback game is to blame. An example is the England team that won the 1966 World Cup. Only Bobby Charlton survived from that squad, four of the rest died just because of dementia.
In the fall of 2020, Charlton was also diagnosed with dementia.
– It is time for the football world to ask itself the question: is heading really necessary? After all, it increases the risk of a serious illness … Maybe you should think about how to change the game? – said in an interview with The Guardian Dr. Willie Stewart from the University of Glasgow.
Social polls show that almost a third of professional football players are afraid of dementia, and more than half of them are ready to significantly reduce their heading in training. At the moment, the Association recommends that professional clubs ensure that football players head the ball no more than ten times a week. It sounds utopian, but the British are really concerned about this issue.
Even stricter rules apply to children. In youth football, they will try to keep heading to a minimum. Of course, you can’t completely ban it – officials want to start by eliminating everything superfluous. Coaches will have to make sure that young players do not head the ball unnecessarily.
Good intentions…
The purpose of the officials, of course, is sacred. Today there is no doubt that regular exposure to the head, especially at a young age, increases the risk of dementia. However, it will be hard for football fans to come to terms with the new reality.
If all the kids in the world stop training headbutts, then very soon this element will simply disappear from the game, and she will lose a lot. Corner kicks, free throws, flank play, getting out of defense – all this will have to be rethought. There is a feeling that, in a sense, the British, with their prohibitions, are running ahead of the locomotive. According to statistics, the number of goals scored from the “second floor” is already getting much smaller today. It is not for nothing that forward-pillars are also losing their appeal to clubs, and “false nines” are gaining popularity. Many are eschewing the tactics of crosses and long throws – and here we have to thank Pep Guardiola, who had a tremendous impact on coaches around the world.
Heading is dying off evolutionarily, but if it is banned from above, it will kill the most important part of football. And then, work is generally not useful for the human body. Every profession has its own costs. For example, office clerks who spend most of their lives in a sitting position are more likely to suffer from a heart attack. And workers in metallurgical plants and mines are at risk of developing respiratory tract cancer.
Football players should be aware of the risks, but I want to believe that sports bosses will not go for total bans. The variability of the game is completely tied to the fact that the ball can be delivered to the partner in different ways – including on horseback. For example, bulk is still almost the only way to organize pressure in the last minutes – well, where without it? In this situation, forbidding to play with the head is like cutting off a hand. The situation requires a more comprehensive approach and multifaceted discussion. And, at the highest level.
