Shearer

[Zippity]

As heading is an integral part of the game I don't think it should be banned from any age group. Maybe the solution would be to have a maximum weight for the ball up to certain ages? I'm not talking penny floaters here but Wembley Trophy?

That's a serious suggestion-the smiley is for my happy memories of Wembley Trophies

[Kal]

I have happy memories of the Roberto Carlos swerve of penny floaters.

[toonlegend]

It was an interesting watch.
However, my take on football and dementia through the heading of it, especially in practice is a case of nature of the beast that is the game of football.
I don't say that to make light of dementia or that football is any root cause. I just mean that I know many people and I'm sure many of you lot do, that have dementia or similar type brain malfunction who've never played football or any sports in terms of any regular basis.

If we look around this country alone and see dementia sufferers in all the forms it takes, I'm sure we could categorise many things and come to a sort of fairly even cut of the pie in terms of people in professions getting it or people in general, as well as sports, including football.
I think diet has a lot to answer for more so than simply heading footballs or the odd clash of heads.

Don't get me wrong mind. I'm all for the ongoing funding to delve deeper into it and in terms of the money in the professional game, it can be used in proportion to actually aid professional sports people like footballers in getting the help they need but let's not even contemplate banning the heading of a football that's been around for hundreds of years and over a hundred in a professional capacity.

We could go down a cotton wool wrapped road with all of this stuff.

they need to get the statistics to compare football population %age with/without dementia compared to general population asap

as someone said they missed a massive chance after Jeff astles death to do this and either put to bed or do something about it.

i would also suggest that as the footballers who played with leather caseballs die off and the next generation grow older you might find a lower number of cases percentage wise than from those of the past

[ghostrider]

they need to get the statistics to compare football population %age with/without dementia compared to general population asap

as someone said they missed a massive chance after Jeff astles death to do this and either put to bed or do something about it.

i would also suggest that as the footballers who played with leather caseballs die off and the next generation grow older you might find a lower number of cases percentage wise than from those of the past

It's all well worth looking into and all sufferers should get the required help, no doubt about it.

I think we can all accept, unofficially, that any head trauma whether it's heading many footballs over years or taking a few real heavy hits to the head by falls or other activities could very well have some lasting effects for some and some grave effects for others.

The major issue is, do we boycott any attempts to use the head in all sports in terms of potential to being hit?
Or do we start from scratch, right now and place a health hazard on any sport that requires it or has the potential to have it happen?

Will people take note or live for today and hope tomorrow looks out for them?
Will it destroy the sports in terms of people being too careful or using it as a bargaining tool?

I have a feeling that this can open a massive massive massive can of worms.