The English Football Association (FA) wants the governing world body (FIFA) to investigate the possible links of heading footballs and dementia.
This comes after its been reported that three ex-England players (Martin Peters, Nobby Stiles and Ray Wilson) all suspect that after years and years of heading heavy, leather footballs it could be to blame.
Nobby Stiles
The FA’s medical chief, Dr. Ian Beasley, is keen to discover if dementia is more common in ex-professional footballers. “We are taking some research questions to FIFA imminently,” he said.
Martin Peters
Beasley wants researchers to assess whether the severity of any brain damage depends on which position the person played, how many games they played, and at which level – and also is there any danger to modern footballers. “The hope is that FIFA will tell us one way or another,” he said. “You may still want to be a professional footballer but at least we can advise you what the chances are of something irreversible happening to you.”
Ray Wilson
FIFA’s chief medical officer, Jiri Dvorak, speaking at the Football Medicine Strategies conference in London, said there was no confirmed link between footballers’ brain trauma and dementia. “We have very little evidence that would substantiate that assumption for football players,” he said. “But that’s the reason why we are also studying the long term changes of former footballers. Not only for brain dysfunction but early onset of osteoarthritis. We are looking at the long-term changes without having any suspicions yet.”