Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Guidance already exists to restrict heading in training in England and Scotland
ByKatie Gornall, BBC Sport correspondent and Melissa Sharman, BBC Sport senior journalist- Published10 minutes ago
An MP is calling for legal safeguards to limit repetitive heading in football training, amid growing concerns about the risk of brain injury.
Grahame Morris, the Labour MP for Easington, submitted a parliamentary motion on Tuesday urging the government to take action to reduce the number of times a player can head the ball in training.
Researchers have found footballers are three and a half times more likely to die from a neurodegenerative disease than the general population.
The Early Day Motion (EDM) describes the need to protect players' brain health as a "significant public health and player welfare issue".
"The aim of this EDM is to raise awareness of the growing body of evidence linking repeated head impacts, particularly from heading a football, to an increased risk of neurodegenerative disease," Morris told BBC Sport.
The motion encourages the government "to take a more active role in prevention, education and player protection" Morris added.
Morris's motion supports a national petition submitted in September by the charity Head Safe Football, and calls on the government to take a number of actions:
Impose legal limits on repetitive heading in football training
Establish a cross-departmental task-force involving medical experts, players representatives, campaign groups and football authorities to develop "enforceable heading safeguards"
Recognise chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) as a public health concern
Create a national action plan to protect players' brain health
Improve education and awareness of the risks associated with heading, including in schools and through the PE national curriculum
EDMs are seen as a means for MPs to express their opinion on a subject and to canvass support for their views. No matter how many MPs sign up to an EDM there is no guarantee that it will be debated in Parliament.
'Guidance is not enough'
Football does already have restrictions around heading.
The Football Association has phased out deliberate heading in grassroots football matches for children aged 11 and under.
It has also issued guidance recommending limits on heading during training of no more than 10 headers per week at amateur level.
In the professional game in England, clubs have been advised to limit players to 10 "high force" headers a week in training.
Scotland has gone further, banning heading in training on the day before and after matches in the professional game.
However, campaigners such as Dr Judith Gates, founder of Head Safe Football, believe that voluntary guidance is not enough.
"What we are finding is that coaches and parents don't know of the guidance, or the ban. Or they do not know why it exists," she told BBC Sport.
"There needs to be greater clarity and greater specific restrictions in order to protect players of today and tomorrow."
Dr Gates, whose husband the former Middlesbrough player Bill died with CTE, a degenerative brain disease associated with repeated head impacts, accepts that enforcing a legal limit would be challenging.
Prime Minister joins calls for compensation scheme
The calls for greater protection came as Prime Minister Andy Burnham called, in an interview with the Telegraph,, external on English football to formally recognise the game's dementia crisis and establish an "industrial injuries" compensation scheme for former players.
In a statement to BBC Sport, he said: "I've spoken to families affected by dementia and brain injury and heard what they have been through.
"Their determination to get this issue taken seriously has been extraordinary, and they should never have had to fight so hard to be heard."
Burnham's intervention follows inquests into the deaths of former England World Cup winner Nobby Stiles and Scotland defender Gordon McQueen, which found repetitive heading had contributed to their deaths.
The Professional Footballer's association (PFA) and the Premier League set up a brain health fund which has provided about £1m annually since 2023. However, campaigners say this is not enough to meet the costs of care.
The Football Association has not financially contributed to the fund, but said it continued to invest in research and had introduced guidance across professional and grassroots football.
"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," an FA spokesperson said.
