Clubs accept new guidelines either side of games, with Celtic’s Ange Postecoglou saying repetitive heading in training is ‘silly’
Early this month and within days of the Scottish Football Association introducing groundbreaking guidelines on the heading of balls at training, the Partick Thistle goalkeeper Jamie Sneddon nodded home a stoppage-time equaliser at Cove Rangers. Was the association’s bid to protect players, after links were established between head injuries and neurodegenerative disease, destined to be in vain?
Sneddon’s intervention was nothing more than coincidence. Thistle are hardly flinging in set pieces for their goalkeeper to attack during pre-match preparations. Under the SFA’s new rules for all adults – they delivered a children’s programme in 2020 – any training exercise that could involve repeated heading is limited to once a week. These drills are banned on the days immediately before or after games.
