www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50124102 Should the game in the future progress to no heading (you never know) I can't imagine what the game would be like - well apart from a 5 a side match at 11 a side.
www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50124102 Should the game in the future progress to no heading (you never know) I can't imagine what the game would be like - well apart from a 5 a side match at 11 a side.
www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50124102 Should the game in the future progress to no heading (you never know) I can't imagine what the game would be like - well apart from a 5 a side match at 11 a side.
NO
"No" to removing heading from the game? Im not saying we should ban heading,but you cant ignore these types of investigations in the same way the games laws get amended and so on and I think its fair to at least open up discussion. If you think of other sports they've had to make adaptations such as in Boxing headguards introduced/removed etc. and no Im not suggesting we go down that route, however I would not be overly surprised if there are some adaptations in youth football (in the future should more of these investigations produce more outcome the authorities start listening to), like say Sin Bins being introduced, academies playing 4 quarter games and so on.
There is an enormous difference between the balls then and now. Up until the late 1970s/early 1980s, the leather balls got heavier when they got wet until they were like concrete. Trying to kick, let alone header these balls, was painful and difficult. Balls have been made of lighter more flexible materials from the 1980s onwards, well after Jeff Astle stopped playing.
The study only considered the time period from 1900 until 1976. It would be interesting to see some ongoing research with footballers in the interim period from 1976 until now, or do we consider it in terms of Pascal's gambit.
My technique for heading a football involves feet squarely on the ground & eyes firmly shut...!!!
Cos I can remember those panelled leather footballs with laces & bladder, they weighed twice as much when wet & soggy too... Sons is correct that there is absolutely no comparison with modern footballs.
However, try standing on the terraces during the pre-match warm-up drills, you still wouldn't want to get your head in the way of a ball struck by a modern day pro... the footballs are lighter & safer, but the players are fitter, quicker & stronger too, it still can give you a really nasty hit...!
i remember being in the terrace when we played Palace in a pre-season game Fan Zhiyi won a free kick just outside the box, he riffled it and the Bruce Winfield end all ran out the way as the ball went wide and nearly put a whole in the wall of the stand absolute rocket of a right foot he had