Responding to a lawsuit demanding changes to the game, the United States Soccer Federation amended its rulebook on Monday, establishing a series of regulations that it believes will help reduce the amount and severity of head injuries in its youth leagues.
These new resolutions bar headers for players under 11, “reduce headers in practice for those” between the ages of 11 and 13 and alter substitution rules to make it easier for players who have taken a hit to the head to get off the field.
“With the development of the youth concussion initiative by U.S. Soccer and its youth members, we feel we have accomplished our primary goal and, therefore, do not see any need to continue the pursuit of the litigation,” Steve Berman, the attorney who represented parents and players in the lawsuit, said in a statement on Monday.
The revisions come during a fall that has seen a head-trauma related tragedy in youth sports seemingly every other week. While the deaths of middle and high school football players have received the most attention, the lawsuit against U.S. Soccer emphasized that, in the year of 2010 alone, a greater number of high school soccer players were concussed -- 50,000 -- than those participating in wrestling, basketball, baseball and softball combined.
Players and parents brought forth the lawsuit in August 2014, accusing major organizations like U.S. Soccer of “negligence in treating and monitoring head injuries.”
The amended bylaws will be mandatory only for leagues operating under the umbrella organization of U.S. Soccer, but will be “recommend[ed]” to other youth programs around the country.
Any rule change that could prevent future on-field tragedies is worth a shot. Our fingers are crossed that that stunning number of 50,000 high school soccer players concussed in a single year slides down as the danger of headers is increasingly stressed in youth play.
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