How will the first game without heading to avoid brain damage in football

09/16/2021 11:44 AM

• Clarín.com

• sports

Updated 09/16/2021 11:44 AM

Football is said to have been born in 1863, with the creation of the

English Football Association

.

And it is on the British island, more than 150 years later, when one of the most resounding changes in the history of this sport is about to take place:

headless matches

.

In this century and a half of travel, the advancement of medicine could not be alien to football.

And a University of Glasgow study conducted on former Scottish footballers showed that they had 3.5 times the risk of dying from a neurodegenerative disease than the average.

This document was made public after the death of former soccer player Nobby Stiles.

The 1966 world champion suffered from dementia and died in October last year, at the age of 78.

After a series of analyzes,

experts agreed that Stiles' brain had been damaged by numerous headbutts

throughout his career.

Messi and his iconic header for Barcelona, ​​in the 2009 Champions League final. Photo: REUTERS / Albert Gea.

The issue was installed on the agenda, especially after

Bobby Charlton

, the glory of English football,

was also diagnosed with dementia in November

.

In total, there were five '66 champions who suffered from this neurological disorder.

The first reaction was to ban headshots in training for youths, something that the United States had already implemented in 2015, a country at the forefront of this problem given its tragic experience with American football.

In July this year, the Premier League spoke out on the matter and established that, starting this season

, professional footballers have only 10 headers per week

in training to reduce the long-term risks of brain injury.

Now in a match

"I would not be surprised if in 10 or 15 years head butts are not allowed in football," ex-footballer

Ryan Mason

predicted in 2020

.

The midfielder had to retire in 2017, at the age of 25, after suffering a skull fracture while playing for Hull City, after crashing in a game with Gary Cahill of Chelsea.

"I am not very clear that footballers are aware of the potential harm that this has. The more research is done and the more footballers are educated on this issue, the better," added Mason, who since retirement has tried to promote the idea of change.

Former English footballer Alan Shearer promotes headless football.

He suffered it firsthand.

This is what the NGO

Head for change is working on

, along with other established ex-footballers such as Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Kevin Keegan.

The idea is to ask,

is it possible to play this sport without one of its most characteristic actions?

They will try to prove that on the 26th of this month when the first adult game without heads is played.

The experiment will take place at Brewery Field in Spennymoor Town.

A small stadium, of a small club in a small city, located in the north of the country.

But that may be

the beginning of something great

.

El Cata Díaz, in a photo from 2012. Defenders are five times more at risk than the rest of their peers of suffering from neurological disorders.

Photo: REUTERS / Juan Medina.

There will coincide two teams made up of former professionals, with a special regulation:

you can only head inside the area and during the first half

;

while in the second half head butts will not be allowed.

The connection between head butts and brain damage is clear,

experts say.

And the key is to

convince the world of football

, both protagonists and fans, that the spirit of this sport will not be altered by such a change.

Another demonstration of this phenomenon appears in the statistics.

Defenders, who head much more than other footballers, have a five times greater risk of suffering from dementia.

On the other hand, there are no records of archers that manifest this disease in the long term.

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