Primary children have been banned from heading in football training in parts of the United Kingdom in a bid to “mitigate against any potential risks” after a study into football and neurodegenerative disease, the Football Association (FA) has said.
The Football Associations in three countries, that is, England, Northern Ireland and Scotland announced the ban on Monday and said a “graduated approach” will be taken to heading in training in under-12s to under-16s football.
The ban, however, does not apply to matches because of the limited number of headers which occur in youth games.
The FA made the announcement after results of a study showed that former footballers were three-and-a-half times more likely to die of the neurodegenerative disease than members of the general population of the same age.
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