{"id":450292,"date":"2026-02-03T02:29:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T02:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/450292\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T02:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T02:29:12","slug":"british-soccer-union-wants-fewer-headers-for-pros-to-protect-players-brains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/450292\/","title":{"rendered":"British soccer union wants fewer headers for pros to protect players’ brains"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON — The union representing British soccer players will announce on Tuesday the first comprehensive protocol for preventing the brain disease CTE, expanding the heightened concern over concussions to include the damage that can be caused by the less forceful blows from heading the ball. <\/p>\n

The guidelines from the Professional Footballers\u2019 Association, which represents current and former players in the Premier League, the FA Women\u2019s Super League and the English Football Leagues, recommend no more than 10 headers per week \u2013 including practice \u2013 for professionals. Children under 12 shouldn\u2019t head the ball at all, the PFA said, part of a chronic traumatic encephalopathy prevention protocol designed to reduce head impacts across a player\u2019s lifetime.<\/p>\n

\u201cCTE is preventable. Period,\u201d Dr. Adam White, Director of Brain Health at the PFA, said on Monday at the first-ever Global CTE Summit, which was held in San Francisco while the NFL descended on the Bay Area for Sunday\u2019s Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the principles of less heading, less force, less often and later in life that matter,\u201d White told The Associated Press. \u201cThese could apply to any sport and are the best hope we have of stopping current and future players from the same fate as former generations.\u201d <\/p>\n

The degenerative brain disease now known as CTE was studied in boxers more than a century ago as punch drunk syndrome and first diagnosed in American football players in 2005. It has since become a concern in ice hockey, soccer and other contact sports and among combat veterans and others who sustain repeated blows to the head.<\/p>\n

A 2017 study found CTE in 110 of 111 brains donated by former NFL players<\/a>. The disease can only be identified posthumously through an examination of the brain.<\/p>\n

The NFL, college football and many other sports have instituted protocols that guide teams and athletes on returning to play after sustaining a possible concussion.<\/p>\n

But the British soccer protocol is the first comprehensive plan to combat CTE by addressing the less dramatic, subconcussive blows that can be common in practice, according to Chris Nowinski, the founder of the Concussion and CTE Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor contact sports, CTE prevention protocols are equally important and possibly more important than concussion protocols,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Among the more recent concerns are the routine head hits sustained by football lineman, and those from soccer players heading the ball. Research funded by the union and the Football Association found that Scottish pros have a risk of dementia that is 3.5 times greater than the general population; studies of brains from British soccer players found the majority had CTE, including Jeff Astle, Gordon McQueen and Chris Nicholl.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith what we know today about the disease, it would be a failure to our players to do nothing,\u201d White said in a statement. \u201cThe science and solutions are clear, it just takes willingness from the sporting bodies to put athletes\u2019 long-term health first and I am pleased that we have been able to do that in England. I encourage all sports to put as much, if not more, effort into CTE prevention protocols as they have concussion protocols.\u201d<\/p>\n

The protocol also includes annual education, support for research and care for ex-players who suspect they are living with CTE. It follows the publication of a CTE prevention framework published in 2023 by researchers assembled by the Concussion and CTE Foundation and Boston University\u2019s CTE Center.<\/p>\n

Nowinski called on sports leagues and their medical advisors to adopt CTE prevention protocols.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is now overwhelming evidence that more head impacts in sports will result in more athletes with CTE,\u201d Nowinski said. \u201cSports administrators aren\u2019t risking CTE themselves, but the policies they set are sentencing some athletes to a life with CTE, a burden that will primarily be carried by their spouses and children. Enough is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP sports: https:\/\/apnews.com\/sports<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON — The union representing British soccer players will announce on Tuesday the first comprehensive protocol for preventing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[185366,1331,49,48,185365,84,7740,66,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-450292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-185366","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-head-injuries","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-nfl-football","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-soccer","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}