Heading for Trouble - by Kevin Moore (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

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'This is the book that every fan, player and administrator must read' - Professor Tony Collins

'Meticulously researched book [and] long overdue' - Professor Jean Williams

Headers are thrilling. But football is facing a concussion crisis. Is heading worth it?

Heading the ball is considered as much a part of football as passing, tackling and shooting. Pelé, Cristiano Ronaldo, Robin Van Persie, Abby Wambach - all have executed memorable headers. But the impact can cause lasting damage. Heading for Trouble is an essential exposé on this dynamic yet increasingly controversial skill.

Through new research, Dr Kevin Moore - founding director of the National Football Museum - explores the fascinating history of heading in football and the dangerous, frequently tragic consequences it can cause. Explaining how minor impacts, such as heading, can lead to neurodegenerative brain disease, he highlights the football establishment's inaction and exposes what may be the game's greatest ever scandal.

Heading for Trouble brilliantly brings this urgent issue into sharp focus and explores how football and heading can move forward without such tragic cost to its players.

Review Quotes

"A hugely important book. A must read for anyone interested in the increasingly compelling evidence that the beautiful game is heading for a crisis if we don't act now." --Paul Ferris, former footballer and author

"An urgent warning for football's hidden crisis" --Chris Evans, author of How to Win the World Cup

"A wakeup call ... gives a voice to all those players who entertained millions but are now suffering from conditions related to heading a football ... a book that anyone who loves the game should read! " --Christopher Evans MP

"The concussion crisis is the biggest threat football has ever faced. Kevin Moore analyses the causes of the crisis and suggests practical solutions to protect the beautiful game from itself. This is the book that every fan, player and administrator must read." --Emeritus Professor Tony Collins, De Montfort University, and Institute of Sports Humanities

"In this meticulously researched book, the author gives an overview of the dangers of heading for a range of football players. The nuances that different populations are affected in specific ways adds greatly to our understanding of the issues that now face football's governing bodies, and it is long overdue that we revise the Laws of the Game." --Professor Jean Williams, the world's leading expert on the history of women's football

"An important and insightful work and book that will help us appreciate the long-term effects of heading the ball in football especially in children and youth football. Football as a global culture of humankind should evolve with science and humankind. This book will help instigate discussions on a global platform on how we can remove heading from football and even make the game better. I strongly recommend it to every fan who loves football." --Dr Bennet Omalu, Forensic Pathologist

"In this meticulously researched and hard-hitting book, Kevin Moore examines the existential crisis facing football. Heading has been a fundamental part of the game since its invention, but can it survive the spectre of brain damage among former players and the threat of this horrible disease hanging over the current generation? How will the football authorities act to limit the damage? More crucially, will they act? This book not only poses these questions but, in order to shake the sport out of its complacency over this public health crisis, it puts forward solutions.' " --Dr Neil Carter, leading historian of football medicine

"Football's 'elephant in the room' is finally disclosed. Some may say that heading the ball is intrinsic to the balletic quality of the 'beautiful game', but the injurious dangers for a player putting head to a fast moving ball are becoming undeniable. In this provocative, and essential, book, Dr Kevin Moore, sport historian and founding Director of England's National Football Museum, makes the compelling case for rule changes to limit heading to be taken seriously. It is time for football's ruling bodies, from the peak to local levels, to face up to the urgent responsibility for reform." --Professor John Hughson, Department of Sociology, St Augustine University of Tanzania

"A hugely important book which will help raise awareness of the hidden risks of heading footballs while exploring a better future where brain trauma is no longer an acceptable 'occupational hazard' for footballers." --Sam Peters, author of Concussed: Sport's Uncomfortable Truth'

"For the 250 to 270 million people around the world who play football regularly, this may be the single most important book they will ever read - and they should read it as soon as possible." --Alan Golding, Producer, Hoi Polloi Pictures

"Kevin's analysis around football's greatest player welfare challenge, a subject very close to my heart, is both brilliantly researched, wonderfully written and incredibly thought provoking." --Dawn Astle MBE, the Jeff Astle Foundation

"It turns out that repeatedly heading the ball is a lot like repeatedly refusing to learn from history. If you must head the ball, then you must also read this book." --Professor Stephen T. Casper, Clarkson University USA.

"A timely study of the head impact crisis in modern football. As provocative as it is thoughtful, and radical as it is scholarly, the book documents how the game got to where it is and offers solutions for how it might yet save itself. Kevin Moore is an excellent guide through the history, the science and the bureaucracy, soberly weighing up the evidence and yet unafraid to name those who have failed to act." --Matthew Taylor, Professor of History and Director of the International Centre for Sports History and Culture, De Montfort University

"A timely, meticulously researched book, on an inconvenient truth that football has ignored for far too long." --Dr Judith Gates, Chair and Co-founder, Head Safe Football

"This book asks all the difficult questions football should be asking itself" --Luke Griggs, Chief Executive of Headway, the brain injury association

"A meticulously researched and expertly conveyed exploration of the risks linked to repetitive heading in soccer. This is thoughtful, evidence-based reading that offers a genuine and constructive path forward for player safety at every level of the game." --Dr Reece Granger, Creator of 'Headfirst: A Concussion Podcast'

About the Author