London (AFP) – A concussion expert told British lawmakers on Tuesday that football’s management of head injuries was a “shambles” at the beginning of a parliamentary inquiry into the issue.
Consultant neuropathologist Willie Stewart was speaking to MPs on the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee.
A 2019 study led by Stewart found that professional footballers were three-and-a-half times more likely to die from neurodegenerative disease compared with members of the general population.
He also examined the brain of English World Cup winner Nobby Stiles following his death in October and concluded that Stiles had been suffering from CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), which is only found in people with a history of repetitive head trauma.
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Football’s lawmakers say they would be “happy” for VARs to stop using lines to make marginal offside calls – if television companies were prepared to do the same.
The advent of VAR has meant that marginal decisions can be made more accurately on what is one of the game’s objective, factual laws.
However, overlaying lines to spot a stray toe or armpit in an offside position has been criticised as being against the spirit of the game, along with the delays to the flow of the matches created by such checks.
Asked whether VARs should just use the naked eye or different camera angles to spot clear and obvious offside errors, the International Football Association Board’s technical director David Elleray said: “If you were to tell the TV companies that they could not use the offside lines, then we would be happy for the VAR not to use the offside line.
Changes to controversial handball rules that blighted the early part of the season have been officially abandoned following a meeting of football s international law-making body.
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