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One-quarter of British soccer teams unaware of international concussion guidelines

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The majority of English soccer sports clubs do not follow international guidelines set to safely return athletes to play, according to a recent study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

“It is widely accepted that medical teams are under constant pressure to return players to fitness as soon as possible,” the authors of the study wrote. “It is in the interests of clubs and their players for the Football Association (FA) to endorse the CIS [Consensus in Sport] guidelines [which are] followed by the majority of world sporting organizations.”

The researchers approached the 92 sports clubs in the English FA with a questionnaire about compliance with the CIS guidelines and found 28% of them were unaware of the guidelines, which the International Olympic Committee Medical Commission, FIFA (Federal Internationale de Football Association) and the International Ice Hockey Federation developed after the first international conference on sports-related concussion in 2001, according to a press release from the journal.

The English FA is divided into four leagues: the Premiere League, the Championship League and Leagues 1 and 2. Among clubs in the leagues that were aware of guidelines, results of the questionnaire showed 44% of those clubs do not follow regularly them.

One guideline recommends a pre-season cognitive test for concussion symptoms, for example, but researchers found this test is not widely used. While the Premiere League assessed their athletes to the greatest extent before the start of a season, only 44% of its member clubs regularly carried out the assessment, according to the release.

Other CIS guidelines, such as a step-by-step approach to return-to-play and a minimum 6-day post-concussion return to play policy, were not enforced, according to the results. Some clubs reported varied periods of rest following a concussion that ranged from 3 days to 28 days or they instituted periods of fixed rest. However, these practices were not among those supported by the guidelines.

Reference:

Price J, Malliaras P, Hudson Z. Current practices in determining return to play following head injury in professional football in the UK. Br J Sports Med. Published online August 27, 2012. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2011-090687.