English football will introduce heading guidance across every level of the professional and amateur game from the start of the 2021/22 season.
The new guidance, which is specifically focused on training sessions where the majority of heading occurs, has been designed to meet the requirements of each level of English football. The guidance will be applicable to clubs in the Premier League, EFL, Barclays Women’s Super League, FA Women’s Championship, the National League System, the Women’s Football Pyramid Tiers 3 and below, all grassroots football, and across the England national teams.
The new heading guidance has been agreed between The FA, Premier League, EFL, the PFA and the LMA.
Heading guidance in professional football
The guidance for the professional game has been developed following multiple studies undertaken in recent months on behalf of a subgroup of the Professional Football Negotiating and Consultative Committee (PFNCC).
The preliminary studies identified the varying forces involved in heading a football, which were provided to a cross-football working group to help shape the guidance.
Based on those early findings, which showed the majority of headers involve low forces, the initial focus of the guidance will be on headers that involve higher forces. These are typically headers following a long pass (more than 35m) or from crosses, corners and free kicks.
It will be recommended that a maximum of 10 higher force headers are carried out in any training week. This recommendation is provided to protect player welfare and will be reviewed regularly as further research is undertaken to understand more regarding the impact of heading in football.
The guidance also recommends that clubs develop player profiles that consider gender, age, playing position, the number of headers per match and the nature of these headers.
These profiles can be used to ensure that all training sessions reflect the type and quantity of headers that a player could expect to undertake within a match. Club staff will also be encouraged to work with players following each match to ensure they have adequate time to recover from their heading exposure.
The guidance also identifies ways in which heading techniques may still be practised while reducing the forces involved. Early evidence suggests lower forces are produced when a ball is thrown to a player rather than kicked, and when a player heads the ball from a standing jump rather than running onto the ball. The Premier League, in conjunction with partners including the LMA, will provide further guidance to club staff on ways in which they might adapt practices.
Clubs in the National League System Steps 1-4 and Women’s Championship are encouraged to follow this guidance where practicable.
Early but limited evidence from these initial studies suggested that neck muscle strength may be a contributing factor to higher force transmission from heading. A strength and conditioning expert advisory group will identify ways in which neck and torso strength can be developed safely across the professional game.
The guidance has been developed using a precautionary approach to protect player welfare where scientific evidence is limited and will be kept under review. The evidence gathering has increased understanding of the forces involved in heading, while also identifying areas that require further exploration. The Premier League with its football partners will deliver expanded research in season 2021/22 to facilitate a formal review of the guidance by the PFNCC in June 2022.