How could the decision to ban headers affect the Scottish League?

The relationship between hitting the ball with the head in football matches and brain diseases has become more clear, which is why the Scottish Federation imposes new rules that apply to all players with the aim of reducing the number of headers to avoid damage caused by hitting the ball with the head, which may cause players to suffer from memory impairment as they progress in the age.

According to the new laws published by the Scottish Federation, any training that includes hitting the ball with the head repeatedly must be held only once a week, and the federation stipulated that this training not take place before the day of the match, not even on the day immediately following the confrontation.

And with the entry into force of the laws and the teams’ commitment to them, the players took turns in heading strikes in the matches, and the British newspaper The Guardian referred to the incident in the Partick Thistle match against Rangers when the goalkeeper of Partick Thistle, Jimmy Sneddon, advanced to his opponent’s area while executing a corner kick in In injury time he scored the killer equalizer.

Patrick Thistle manager Ian McCall explains what little difference the SFA’s decisions have made to coaching: “I’m not saying people weren’t heading at all before these rules, but they were doing the bare minimum. Now, they don’t head the ball at all.”
He added, “If you are doing cross-ball training, the defenders will not head the ball while the attackers try to score, because this may expose them to injury.

Even during set-piece training the day before a game, players rarely head the ball. We play corner kicks, but no player has to head the ball while training for that, all we do is train the players on the correct positioning.”

And it’s not just McCall, but it extends to all managers in Scottish football. The Scottish Football Association admits it’s very difficult to monitor what each club does in training, but the FA asks clubs to look at training plans at random. Clubs appear to accept restrictions on heading the ball.

In turn, Celtic coach Ange Postecoglou says: “I would be very surprised if this had a significant impact on the professional level. This probably isn’t a problem for us, but the new guidelines could be important for clubs that play at lower levels of the professional level. I completely understand applying these instructions to children, or teams that train once or twice a week, and we are happy to adhere to the guidelines.”

And he adds, “It did not affect us at all, because we no longer train to head the ball frequently in training anymore. I did not do that 20 years ago. I did that when I was a player, but as a coach I did not devote much time to this type of training.” ».

And he continued, “Now that we know the dangers of heading the ball now, it would be ridiculous to do so. The more information, the greater the awareness, the greater the culture, and the more guidance there is, and I think this helps everyone in the world of football, but we must remember very well that these instructions are not only related to the game at the professional level, but they are related to football in general.