Phasing out Heading from Football - Yay or Nay?

[evilwebby]

What say ye?
Seems preposterous to imagine the beautiful game without heading being allowed..

 

[No8Bally]

Remove heading, and you may as well opt to watch knitting competitions.

 

[Lineker]

They've already outlawed contact and staying on your feet, so may as well.

I mean the way the game used to be played was so unpopular I'm surprised the game didn't die out years ago.

 

[MikeH72]

It’s no longer football if this happens. I will be watching a different sport.

 

[Goat]

It’s no longer football if this happens. I will be watching a different sport.

This.

Not a chance I watch no heading footy, be worse than the birds footy that.











*waits

 

[The binman chronicles]

Footballers supposedly have 3 times more chance of getting dementia than the rest of us folk, but come on we've heard most footballers talk and for many there isn't much brain there to start with so the heading is purely coincidental imho.

 

[ToffeeTim]

Its not football without heading. Yes limit it in training and for kids, but in competitive matches, it has to stay.

 

[Armaghtoffee]

Probably the hardest skill in the game to master.

Different era though, the ball now is like a balloon compared to the pigskin days.

 

[Diogenes the Cynic]

Ridiculous idea.

They'll be phasing punching out of boxing next.

 

[Methuselah]

Most, if not all, the dementia cases we read about are players who played using the old 'heavy' ball. The modern ball is a lot lighter and more importantly, is waterproof and doesn't get even heavier when wet. I think banning heading during training is reasonable but banning it in matches is a no no.
I played until I was 40, all with the old ball. Centre-half, always heading the ball but I don't remember ever heading the ball in training (unless there was a practise match, which wasn't very often.)

The line on the graph will start going down when players who played all their careers with the modern ball are taken into account.

 

[Zezti]

Compulsory protective headgear first, imo.

Could understand it for kids though, when brains are extra squishy and whatnot.

 

[chrismpw]

People still get dementia without ever having headed a ball and without being paid millions and having a lavish lifestyle to compensate. Soldiers aren't paid a great deal - should bullets be banned?*

*actually yes

 

[ChesterBlue]

Thing I don’t get is if they do this, surely boxing/UFC etc will have to be instantly banned?

 

[cronullasharks]

Thing I don’t get is if they do this, surely boxing/UFC etc will have to be instantly banned?

True, i love boxing but really it's hard to make a case for it in regards to brain trauma injuries.

 

[BluePeadar]

Soccer is going through an identity crisis a bit I think. They clamped down on “simulation”, the fact they have to do that is worrying. Getting rid of heading changes the entire game. It would be the end for me. And Stoke