FIFA May Mandate Concussion Breaks in Soccer Games

FIFA’s medical committee proposed a new policy Tuesday that would require a three-minute stop if a player is suspected of suffering from head trauma.

“The incidents at the World Cup have shown that the role of team doctors needs to be reinforced in order to ensure the correct management of potential cases of concussion in the heat of the competition,” the committee said in a release. “The referee will only allow the injured party to continue playing with the [authorization] of the team doctor, who will have the final decision.”

The proposal has been sent to the FIFA Executive Committee, which will vote on the matter.

In this summer’s World Cup, controversy arose when Uruguay’s Alvaro Pereira was allowed to stay in the game after taking a knee to the head, while dazed German midfielder Christoph Kramer was allowed to play for 14 minutes after a collision that left him so disoriented, he asked the ref “Is this the final?” (It was).

According to the Center for Injury Research and Policy, more high school soccer players suffered from head injuries in 2010 than softball, wrestling, basketball, and baseball players combined. And these sustained injuries can have lasting health repercussions: Although Brazilian soccer star Bellini, winner of the 1958 World Cup, was thought to have died due to Alzheimer’s complications in March at age 83, new research reveals that he actually suffered from a degenerative brain disease also afflicting many boxers and football players.