8 Potential Game Changers For Football In The Near Future

For those who dreaded the prospect of heading a wet, muddy Mitre ball growing up, this potential change will seem a welcome evolution. However, the reasons for, and potential implications are serious.

In recent months, children in Scotland have been banned from heading footballs in training. This move follows research that indicates headings’ potential connection with increased chances of developing dementia. Repeatedly heading a football, has been connected to several types of brain injury and raises serious ethical questions for the game.

Alongside, claims from top managers that players’ wellbeing is already being jeopardised by vast fixture lists and the high demands of the modern game, the potential lifelong implications of brain injuries from heading raise the moral issue of whether footballers are paid such high wages for the risk of injury they endure.

A rare inverting of the football pyramid could see grassroots football influence the top level of the game, with heading likely to be phased out in training for many youth sides. Serious health implications aside, a future without heading would vastly alter the way the game was played, with head height passing laws (akin to 5-a-side) posing difficult problems for how players must react and play the game. At a time where the NFL and Boxing are undergoing similar ethical crises, football must decide the value placed on player wellbeing.

As much as supporters love a domineering centre forward, clambering over a centre back to win a header, the health and wellbeing of players must be a priority- a priority that may change the game in a way it has never been changed before.