Winter
Well-known member
The SFA are issuing guidelines that will " effectively ban the heading of the football in the days before and after matchdays" , as well as recommendations that " training exercises that involve heading the football be limited to once per week".
This is a very forward thinking idea and is no doubt welcomed by many as something that's years overdue.
How will it be implemented though?
That's the tricky part in this.
Todays modern footballers are all instinctively attuned to how to play the game and that very much includes the heading of the ball, especially in defence and attack.
Will the SFAs guidelines be on a ' self regulatory framework ' where clubs enforce this themselves?
Given the overwhelming evidence against heading the football it's clear something like this is essential for the health and safety of players.
I also believe it will take more than guidelines and recommendations for it to work.
A £6 million defender like Cameron Carter Vickers is not going to refuse to header the ball away from danger when hes playing in front of 60,000 supporters at Celtic Park, neither will an upcoming academy player trying to break into the Hamilton first team.
Implementing this at the younger age group is of course the way to go.
Perhaps in time , there could be a change to the laws of the game that makes it illegal for a player to head the ball more than once per week/once per game/ or some collective team count for the month?
A club may only have 'X' amount of headers per month?
This is where a good idea runs into problems.
How to implement something that must be implemented?
Whilst I've no doubts that this will be a good thing, the monitoring of its guidelines and recommendations will prove tougher for the SFA to oversee than they might have imagined.
Could it lead to the complete disappearance of heading the football during a game in the future?
Perhaps, or perhaps certain areas of the pitch no headers are allowed.
Headed goals are a thing of beauty when executed properly and the footballs are lighter these days but the medical evidence is still overwhelmingly against heading the ball repetitively.
These guidelines will take time to get a foothold in the game.
It may be todays children who are the ones that are able to implement it better having grown up with the game that perhaps penalises a header as it does a handball and so it might not be so instinctive.
It must be welcomed but there's many things that require ironing out with these guidelines before we see it as part of the beautiful game.
This is a very forward thinking idea and is no doubt welcomed by many as something that's years overdue.
How will it be implemented though?
That's the tricky part in this.
Todays modern footballers are all instinctively attuned to how to play the game and that very much includes the heading of the ball, especially in defence and attack.
Will the SFAs guidelines be on a ' self regulatory framework ' where clubs enforce this themselves?
Given the overwhelming evidence against heading the football it's clear something like this is essential for the health and safety of players.
I also believe it will take more than guidelines and recommendations for it to work.
A £6 million defender like Cameron Carter Vickers is not going to refuse to header the ball away from danger when hes playing in front of 60,000 supporters at Celtic Park, neither will an upcoming academy player trying to break into the Hamilton first team.
Implementing this at the younger age group is of course the way to go.
Perhaps in time , there could be a change to the laws of the game that makes it illegal for a player to head the ball more than once per week/once per game/ or some collective team count for the month?
A club may only have 'X' amount of headers per month?
This is where a good idea runs into problems.
How to implement something that must be implemented?
Whilst I've no doubts that this will be a good thing, the monitoring of its guidelines and recommendations will prove tougher for the SFA to oversee than they might have imagined.
Could it lead to the complete disappearance of heading the football during a game in the future?
Perhaps, or perhaps certain areas of the pitch no headers are allowed.
Headed goals are a thing of beauty when executed properly and the footballs are lighter these days but the medical evidence is still overwhelmingly against heading the ball repetitively.
These guidelines will take time to get a foothold in the game.
It may be todays children who are the ones that are able to implement it better having grown up with the game that perhaps penalises a header as it does a handball and so it might not be so instinctive.
It must be welcomed but there's many things that require ironing out with these guidelines before we see it as part of the beautiful game.
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so if I forget ma kids names in a few years I know whose getting the blame
