FA insist there is no link between heading in football and brain damage despite recent findings

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Martin Macdonald | Author

The English Football Association has told the High Court that there is no proven link between heading a football and brain damage, as it responds to a legal claim by former players.

Ninety-six former footballers, including the family of Nobby Stiles, have filed a claim with the High Court but the FA say that the hypothesis linking neurological damage with heading “remains unproven”.

Stiles and former Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear were both diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) after their deaths, while in January, an inquest determined that Gordon McQueen's brain disease and subsequent death in 2023 has been linked to repeatedly heading balls as a professional footballer.

The former Manchester United and Leeds United defender was diagnosed with vascular dementia in January of 2021 and passed away in June of 2023 at the age of 70.

An inquest into his death was held in North Yorkshire and senior coroner John Heath told the court:

"I have found that Mr McQueen suffered repetitive head impacts during his career.

"I am satisfied that on the balance of probability that repeatedly heading footballs contributed to his developing chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

"The combination of CTE and vascular dementia led to pneumonia. I find the cause of death pneumonia, vascular dementia and CTE. It is likely that repetitive head impacts, sustained by heading the ball while playing football, contributed to the CTE."

The FA’s defence, first reported by The Daily Telegraph, states: “It is denied that repeated heading of a football and/or repeated concussion has been established to cause permanent brain damage and/or long-term neurological damage.

“It is not established that either heading or concussive incidents experienced during football cause CTE and/or that any symptoms experienced by those subsequently diagnosed with CTE are likely to have been the result of CTE, and/or were the result of playing football.”

Despite these claims from the FA, they have previously banned heading in games and in training for children under the age of 11, while they continue to fund research into the issue.

Twenty years ago and beyond, it was the norm for players of all ages and levels to head the ball not only during matches, but during training as well. In modern times, youth coaches have been warned to minimise heading in matches, where possible, and completely ban heading from training altogether.

An FA spokeswoman said: “While the link between heading in football and long-term brain health remains the subject of ongoing scientific and medical research, we have consistently been at the forefront of efforts to help improve the safety of our game.

“We were the first governing body to introduce comprehensive heading guidelines across both professional and grassroots football, and we continue to review and enhance our game-wide concussion protocols in line with worldwide best practice.

“We have also invested in and actively supported multiple independent research projects, often resulting in groundbreaking and valuable insight, in order to gain a greater understanding of this complex area through objective, robust and thorough analysis.”

A new ball for the future?

Loughborough University, backed by the Football Association, conducted new research assessing the design of footballs, the speed it was travelling and whether it was wet or dry, to determine the impact on the head.

"There are examples of balls that transfer high or low energy through all eras of play", said Andy Harland, professor of sports technology at Loughborough University.

"There is no trend that suggests the magnitude of energy transfer is increasing or decreasing over time.

"Our evidence suggests that high energy pressure wave transfer was not limited to leather balls, so, if this energy is associated with neurodegenerative disease, it is not a problem that has gone away with modern balls."

In 2019, the 'Field' by the Professional Footballers' Association, found that footballers were 3.5 times more likely to suffer from neurodegenerative disorders later in life due to heading footballs.

Dr Ieuan Phillips, lead researcher at Loughborough University, said: "These findings provide opportunities to work towards ball designs and testing specifications that minimise energy transfer into the brain.

"We're hoping that this discovery provides some valuable information that could look more specifically at the potential causes of the disease that we're seeing in retired players.

"At the moment, we see correlations and statistical observations about them and their careers in the game.

"As yet, it's unexplained as to what exactly it is about the collision with a football in a header that is causing damage to the brain, and it may well be many years until we can reach that point. But I think this discovery allows us to focus specifically on something which we've never measured before.

"Most excitingly, it gives us the opportunity to make changes to the ball. This energy transfer that we've measured is separate from the big picture of the ball hitting the head and the player's head recoiling. It is over at the very beginning of the collision and represents a very discreet pulse of energy that passes into the brain."

What is CTE?

The concept of CTE was thrust into public consciousness by concussion expert Dr Bennet Omalu, who published findings on an autopsy he did on former NFL player Mike Webster back in 2002.

Webster, who was a Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Steelers star, suffered amnesia, depression and dementia before his death at the age of 50.

Prior to Omalu's findings, CTE had only really been discussed as a threat to the lives of boxers who naturally receive numerous blows to the head.

The NFL did not truly embrace and acknowledge the link between the vigours of playing American Football and CTE until 2016 when the NFL's senior vice president for health and safety policy, Jeff Miller, testified before Congress, recognising that changes had to be made.

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Martin Macdonald | Author

Martin Macdonald is an experienced digital journalist who has significant expertise in a number of different genres, including his work on FootballTransfers.

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