Former England captain Terry Butcher urges football’s authorities to ban heading
Former England captain Terry Butcher wants heading to be BANNED in football to stop players suffering from brain disease in later life
Ex-England captain Terry Butcher wants heading to be phased out of footballStudies show players are 3.5 times more likely to die from degenerative brain diseasesThe FA has recommended a maximum of ’10 higher-force headers’ in a weekButcher told a BBC podcast that he believes it’s ‘something we can do without’
Ex-England captain Terry Butcher, who suffered one of British football’s most famous head wounds, has urged football’s authorities to phase out heading to protect players from brain disease.
Butcher, who played on for England in a World Cup qualifier against Sweden in 1989 despite bleeding profusely from the wound, said the consequences of head injuries are potentially ‘catastrophic’ — a fact which he neither fully appreciated nor understood at the time.
‘Eventually I want to see football have no heading — phase heading out,’ said Butcher. ‘I think you’ve got to do it gradually. I think you have to be very careful but I think you have to look at safety. You have to look at families losing their loved ones too early.
‘I think it’s something that we can do without — and then it would rule out the trauma of heading a football, particularly at pace. You’ve got to get some brain trauma in there because your brain is going to rattle against your skull, it’s not good.
‘Heading is something that has been strong, particularly in Britain with the way that we used to play, but not so much now. I’d like to see it phased out.’
Ex-England captain Terry Butcher wants football’s authorities to ban heading from the game
Research has found that footballers are three-and-a-half times more likely to die from degenerative brain diseases
Despite scientific evidence showing that former outfield players are four times more likely to suffer neurodegenerative disease and changes in brain function after a short heading session, some managers are refusing to help enforce new Football Association guidelines designed to protect players.
Tottenham Hotspur manager Nuno Espirito Santo said last week he was openly flouting recommended limits of 10 ‘higher-force’ headers per week — typically from a long ball, cross, corner or free-kick — in training sessions.
‘Maybe I will get in trouble for this, but football is jumping, heading,’ said Nuno. ‘It’s part of the game.’
Regardless of the Portuguese’s indifference, English football will expand research into the dangers of heading, with players from more than 10 clubs set to use mouth guards to measure the impact on their brains over the rest of this season.
Of risks to his own health, Butcher told the BBC: ‘It won’t be worrying for me because I won’t particularly know, I would have thought, if it does happen. So it’s worrying for the family. We’ve seen pictures of a lot of footballers where they’ve got dementia and Alzheimer’s and it breaks your heart.’
He added: ‘I would imagine if we’re having the same conversation in 20 years we will be at a stage where football is played on the ground. Yes, you have to hit long passes. Yes, you have to clear the ball high. But players will have to bring the ball down quicker and better, their control, their awareness has to be better. They have to adapt.
‘Injuries — broken legs, cruciates — you recover very well generally. But you’ll never recover from brain trauma.’
Butcher – pictured with a bloodied England shirt after playing against Sweden in 1989 – says heading is ‘something we can do without’
English football will greatly expand research into the dangers and effects of heading
Watford midfielder Tom Cleverley came off as a half-time concussion substitute last week after playing on for more than 20 minutes
Header, ref! Trailblazing match involving ex-pros partly organised by a brain charity trials NO HEADING in the second half… and showed football can survive without it
There were two minutes and 56 seconds on the clock at Spennymoor Town’s Brewery Field when the referee blew for the game’s first foul. Against Mark Tinkler, for heading the ball.
Cue a chorus of laughter from the substitutes. Tinkler, the former Leeds midfielder and Middlesbrough academy coach, had forgotten the rules of this experiment: no heading outside the box in the first half, no heading at all in the second.
Chalk it up to instinct. ‘I was only testing the referee,’ Tinkler claimed.
Craig Hignett (left) was among the ex-pros taking part in the match at Spennymoor Town
Mark Tinkler was the first player penalised for heading in football history in stoppage time
That would be the only moment in the entire 90 minutes that a player headed the ball illegally.
Other than that, this footballing first went off without a hitch. Well, apart from when the studs on the bottom of Craig Hignett’s boots started to drop off during the warm-up.
The one-off pilot match was played between former professional footballers — like Steve Howey, the former Newcastle, Manchester City and England defender, and Tommy Miller, formerly of Hartlepool, Ipswich and Sunderland — and me.
Sportsmail’s campaign to have dementia in football properly tackled to an invitation to play with the old pros.
With evidence suggesting heading the ball can be dangerous, this was a unique opportunity to see what the game would look like if restrictions were implemented.
One side was representing Middlesbrough, the other Spennymoor, and we wore the names of former footballers. My shirt was Alan Peacock, Boro legend and an ex-England international who is now living with dementia.
Among those in the stands was Gary Pallister, the former Manchester United and England centre back who suffered from agonising migraines in his day.
Head for Change and the Solan Connor Fawcett Family Cancer Trust organised the match
‘Heading is a big part of football and you’re forever practising it,’ he said. ‘I think about the amount of times I headed the ball in training, the amount of concussions I had, and what the consequences of that are.’
Pallister and the other 350 supporters saw plenty of crosses come in during the first half, when heading was only allowed inside the box. One such whipped-in ball saw the scoring opened by a header at the back post.
In the second half, when heading was banned altogether, those crosses dried up as we tried to find other ways into the box.
If a goal kick was launched long, it would be controlled with a chest. If the ball flew high in the air, players wrestled to try to win possession as it dropped down. We adapted.
The match finished 5-5 as Spennymoor won the shootout to lift the Bill Gates Celebration Cup
The winners took home the Bill Gates Celebration Cup, named after the former Middlesbrough defender suffering from dementia.
Gates was here with his wife Judith, the co-founder of Head for Change, the brain charity which organised Sunday’s game in association with the Solan Connor Fawcett Family Cancer Trust.
The final score was 5-5, with the shootout won by Spennymoor. ‘It was good fun, but the main point of the day was to raise awareness about dementia in football,’ said Dave Parnaby, manager of the Middlesbrough side. That it did, with international media present.
This was only a first glimpse, but it told us that if football ever does decide its had enough of heading, the spectacle can survive.
Additional reporting by Kieran Gill
