London (AFP)
Apprentice Scottish footballers will no longer be allowed to turn heads in training before the age of 12 because of the risks of dementia in adulthood, British media said on Thursday.
According to the BBC, the Scottish Football Federation (SFA) plans to announce the ban in January.
Scotland would be the first in Europe to implement this measure, after the United States which launched it in 2015, following resounding scandals of former professional sportsmen struck by dementia, notably in American football.
In October, a Glasgow University study of former Scottish footballers found that they were 3.5 times more likely to die from neurodegenerative disease than the average.
"There are questions about the age limit, according to speculation, it would be 12 years. That means that a 13 year old child can make heads without risk. How do we know that it is?" , reacted in a press release Peter McCabe, president of the association Headway which fights against neurodegenerative diseases.
"So there is an urgent need to do more research to understand what the risks, if any, are of kicking the head in a modern soccer ball," he added.
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