I've looked at heading in football since 2015 - here's my thoughts on the FA banning it for juniors

When parts of the game we have known for so long are tweaked or changed, it can have the result of sending shockwaves through the game and it’s easy to think along the lines of 'If it ain’t broke, stop trying to fix it' but my initial thoughts to the new heading rules coming in for next season are as follows...

Is this a major change? Yes absolutely.

Is this a shock though? To be fair, the answer would probably be no. In fact, I would go further to say it was even expected. Why, you may ask? To answer this let me add some context and history.

I first started to take a serious interest in this topic way back in 2015, after heading of the ball was banned in the US for children aged 10 and under following a lawsuit being filed against the US Soccer Federation by a group of concerned parents and players.

Nine years ago this was a shock, and also unexpected.

And again, in 2020, the Scottish Football Association also banned children under the age of 12 from heading balls in training but, due to the pandemic, this didn’t seem to get the attention it may have had otherwise.

So, we move forward and, before the start of the 2022-23 season, The FA invited all County FAs, leagues, clubs and schools across the country to take part in the new IFAB trial to remove deliberate heading in grassroots football matches at U12 level and below.

Over this time, around 16,000 teams and 107,000 players participated in the trial, this included observing and monitoring matches involved in the trial, conducting surveys with coaches, parents, guardians, referee and club officials, as well as gathering feedback from youth players.

As a result of these trials and my day-to-day role in the sport with Team Grassroots, I started to observe games which were part of the trial and also games which were not to ascertain how many deliberate headers were actually happening at these age groups.

Heading in junior football will soon be a thing of the past

Over this period, I observed hundreds of matches, ironically I found that deliberate headers were actually quite rare in live games, so rare in fact I could count the headers on one hand in most games I watched.

At the very young age groups, I found deliberate heading was so rare that on multiple occasions I didn’t even count one deliberate header in a game, not always but certainly on more occasions there were no deliberate headers than there were deliberate headers. Of course, this began to change as the ages got older and more deliberate headers appeared.

So back to the changes themselves, I have heard both sides of this argument, it’s a polarising topic with many nuances. However, what you or I want football to look like is one thing but, ultimately, if medical experts and scientific experts are concluding that it’s safer for young players not to deliberately head the ball, and I don’t have a credible medical or scientific argument against the proposed changes, then I think the sensible thing is to accept the omission of headers at this age and the new dribble/kick in changes and move forward.

Sometimes the game changes, it adapts for the people playing it, even mini soccer in the grand scheme of time is quite a modern shift away from the traditional 11 aside big pitch (that I played on when I was a kid). Now we have five-a-side, seven, nine and 11-a-side with ball sizes and pitch sizes to suit.

These were bold decisions made at the time to make the game more suitable for the players and divided opinion, but the grassroots game, and particularly mini soccer, is absolutely flourishing now. And I am sure these changes have helped towards this.

Will everyone agree with this most recent update? Most likely not, so let me know what your thoughts are on the new rules.

You can see a summary of the changes below.

Proposed FA changes to heading rules

• Deliberate heading to be banned at under-7 to under-9 level from 2024/25, under-10 level from 2025/26 and under-11 level from 2026/27.
• Breaking the rule will result in an indirect free-kick to the opposition at the point where the header was made. Breaking it in the penalty area will result in an indirect free-kick from the sideline closest to where the offence took place.
• No disciplinary sanctions will be applied for a deliberate header unless it is considered a persistent deliberate offence, which could then result in a caution.
• Throw-ins will be replaced by a pass-in/dribble-in. When restarting the play, a player can either pass the ball or dribble it, with play beginning when the ball is kicked and clearly moved. Opposition players must be at least five yards from the pass-in/dribble-in.

Paul Kirton is the founder of Team Grassroots.