Growing concerns prompt calls to ban heading for children across UK and Ireland

As studies reveal potential long-term brain risks from heading in football, Ireland, England, and Scotland are adopting stricter measures, with advocates arguing for a complete ban for children.

Children in Ireland can still head a football in matches and training, even as neighbours move to limit the practice. In England, deliberate heading has been removed from grassroots matches at under-12 level and below, while the Scottish Football Association has banned heading in training for under-12s and younger. In Ireland, the Football Association of Ireland says it is focusing instead on using the right ball weight for younger players and encouraging coaches to keep heading repetitions to a minimum.

The issue is no longer simply about technique or toughness. Studies and inquests have deepened concern that repeated heading may carry long-term brain risks, especially for players who are exposed to it over many years. Researchers at Loughborough University have identified a pressure-wave effect at impact and are exploring whether footballs could eventually be made safer to head, though that work is still at an early stage.

That concern has been sharpened by the deaths of several former professionals. A coroner in England recently ruled that 1966 World Cup winner Nobby Stiles died with a brain condition linked to repeated heading, alongside Alzheimer’s disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disorder associated with head trauma. Earlier this year, an inquest into the death of Gordon McQueen found that heading was likely to have contributed to a brain injury that played a part in his death.

For the writer’s argument, the central point is simple: if heading is already recognised as a risk for adult professionals, there is little reason to keep exposing children to it. Match-day heading may be rare at youth level, but it still happens, often framed as a test of bravery or commitment. The case for change, he suggests, is strongest where the players are youngest and least able to understand the cost.