FA chief executive Mark Bullingham confirmed this week that “updated heading guidance is an evolution of our current guidelines and will help coaches and teachers to reduce and remove repetitive and unnecessary heading from youth football”.
He said: “Our research has shown that heading is rare in youth football matches, so this guidance is a responsible development to our grassroots coaching without impacting the enjoyment that children of all ages take from playing the game.”
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LEE GLASSAR (Head of junior football at MLFC)
“We’re always happy to take guidance from the FA, who have clearly researched the topic thoroughly. We generally employ most of what was said in the guidelines in terms of no heading in training. Our philosophy has always been to play out from the back, and we agree with this common sense approach and have already taken steps to use smaller football and lighter (not fully inflated) balls. We will be having a briefing with managers and assistant-managers about the new directive. As a Chartered Standard club, we will be putting all of the guidelines in place with immediate effect. Our safe-guarding and welfare team are also fully aware and are happy to discuss with any parents.”
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ADAM LUSTIGMAN (owner Excel Sunday League)
“Personally I’ve never done repetitive heading in any of my junior sessions because it doesn’t relate to what happens in matches. Ultimately there isn’t much heading in games, so why would you focus on it in training? We will obviously take all heading drills out under the new FA guidelines. I’m glad they haven’t banned it from matches as I’ve seen at least a number of great headed goals this season, so why would you want to take that out of the game?”
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LAURENCE THORNE (chairman of Maccabi Junior Football League)
“We will support the heading ban stipulations and instruct the clubs accordingly. They have their own welfare and safety systems in place so they will have to instigate the heading ban to training sessions themselves.”
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SCOTT SHULTON (owner of SFC Academy)
“Research has shown that heading a ball is rare in youth football matches, so this guidance is a responsible development to our SFC coaching without impacting the enjoyment that children of all ages take from playing the game in order to unpick any link between football and dementia risk but until we know more, making sure the nation's best-loved game is played as safely as possible is a sensible approach. We may look to bring in sponge balls to learn the technique and gain that experience of actually challenging for a header.”
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RICHARD BAUM (co-owner HGS Soccer School)
“Heading is an art and plays a big part in football in both attacking and defensive areas of the pitch. However, at young ages kids should develop their technical and passing skills before anything else, so if it’s deemed as best practice by the FA to avoid heading in training for children under 11 then HGS will embrace it . As the Great Brian Clough once said, ‘if god wanted us to play football in the clouds he would have put grass there’.”
