Head injuries* stopping games/counter attacks

[Rita_Poon]

With head injury protocols being abused by players to force referees to stop games and thus prevent counter attacks, what can be done?

Concussion subs are available and two are free to use outside of the permitted 5 subs per game allowance.

For me, when a player goes down holding his head or face then if the ref is to stop the game the player goes off the field for a minimum 90 seconds and the game restarts, unless a concussion sub is used, in which case the 90 seconds stands and then the new player is allowed on.

This 'magic sponge' era stuff of...

• challenge for the header
• lose
• fall over clutching face/head
• ref forced to stop game for stricken player
• sudden recovery
• players stays on, opposition lose out on overload/quicker player released/counter

Enough is enough. Referee's ought to be calling this perversion out, seeing as they know the game so well and their experience and authority can be relied upon without fail...

 

[slipstream86]

Will be very difficult

Is it ever going to be possible to determine if a particular challenge is possible or impossible to have caused concussive injury without stopping the game pending a medical assessment? I doubt it. The litigation stakes are too high if someone is genuinely concussed and then prevented from receiving immediate treatment.

So then it moves to 'stop the game, allow the treatment, but with a forfeit' as you suggest.

I do think a lot of the time they go down in the hope that the challenging players elbows were slightly high and made contact sufficient for a var check leading to a sending off.

 

[Rita_Poon]

Will be very difficult

Is it ever going to be possible to determine if a particular challenge is possible or impossible to have caused concussive injury without stopping the game pending a medical assessment? I doubt it. The litigation stakes are too high if someone is genuinely concussed and then prevented from receiving immediate treatment.

So then it moves to 'stop the game, allow the treatment, but with a forfeit' as you suggest.

I do think a lot of the time they go down in the hope that the challenging players elbows were slightly high and made contact sufficient for a var check leading to a sending off.

Pardon me, I seem to have worded my point poorly (who knew!), I suggest take the most safety conscious decision every time, if it's any head injury - off for a check you go no matter what. Your side plays on a man down for the check or 90 seconds until the concussion sub is readied.

Once the prize of stopping the game for your teams gain is removed, I reckon 90% stop.

 

[chrismpw]

Retrospective mandatpry red cards for all play acting (say it as it is - cheating) - will kill it stone dead.

But we all know the only club where that will get applied.

 

[Lineker]

I've never understood why the game stops for a player down, whether it be for a head injury or something else.

What's going to happen in the 1 or 2 minutes between the incident and the next natural stoppage? Its not like a player is going to bleed out in that time.

Cases like Christian eriksen where time might actually be of the essence are rare and I'm not waiting for the ref to stop it if I am the medical staff.

 

[arch stanton]

With head injury protocols being abused by players to force referees to stop games and thus prevent counter attacks, what can be done?

Concussion subs are available and two are free to use outside of the permitted 5 subs per game allowance.

For me, when a player goes down holding his head or face then if the ref is to stop the game the player goes off the field for a minimum 90 seconds and the game restarts, unless a concussion sub is used, in which case the 90 seconds stands and then the new player is allowed on.

This 'magic sponge' era stuff of...

• challenge for the header
• lose
• fall over clutching face/head
• ref forced to stop game for stricken player
• sudden recovery
• players stays on, opposition lose out on overload/quicker player released/counter

Enough is enough. Referee's ought to be calling this perversion out, seeing as they know the game so well and their experience and authority can be relied upon without fail...

let the game continue and the physio/medic staff can come on to the field of play while the game continues.

 

[arch stanton]

Pardon me, I seem to have worded my point poorly (who knew!), I suggest take the most safety conscious decision every time, if it's any head injury - off for a check you go no matter what. Your side plays on a man down for the check or 90 seconds until the concussion sub is readied.

Once the prize of stopping the game for your teams gain is removed, I reckon 90% stop.

problem with that is that a head injury may also have a potential for a neck injury and the medics wont want to move the player away until they've assessed.
The only perfect solution is for players to stop cheating and trying to gain unfair advantages

 

[the golden visionary]

Not a new thing. I remember de jong for city doing it when we were on top , killed the momentum we had.

This season it was Newcastle at home, joelinton goes down while we were attacking, kills the momentum, the arsehole gets back up and plays on. Nothing wrong with him, laughing at the ref.

The refs are weak. Unless its a club thry feel safe to go at.

 

[the golden visionary]

problem with that is that a head injury may also have a potential for a neck injury and the medics wont want to move the player away until they've assessed.
The only perfect solution is for players to stop cheating and trying to gain unfair advantages

There's to much money in the game now for that to happen. Unfortunately football is a sport where cheating is not only acceptable but encouraged

 

[Tipp blue]

With head injury protocols being abused by players to force referees to stop games and thus prevent counter attacks, what can be done?

Concussion subs are available and two are free to use outside of the permitted 5 subs per game allowance.

For me, when a player goes down holding his head or face then if the ref is to stop the game the player goes off the field for a minimum 90 seconds and the game restarts, unless a concussion sub is used, in which case the 90 seconds stands and then the new player is allowed on.

This 'magic sponge' era stuff of...

• challenge for the header
• lose
• fall over clutching face/head
• ref forced to stop game for stricken player
• sudden recovery
• players stays on, opposition lose out on overload/quicker player released/counter

Enough is enough. Referee's ought to be calling this perversion out, seeing as they know the game so well and their experience and authority can be relied upon without fail...

Why the need to stop play? If a player goes down and it's not deemed a foul then play on but allow medical staff to come on while play continues, this achieves 2 things, an actual injured player gets quicker attention as there's no waiting for the ref to stop play, along with stopping players faking injuries as it will serve no purpose and you are only disadvantaging your own team.

 

[larbert toffee]

Retrospective mandatpry red cards for all play acting (say it as it is - cheating) - will kill it stone dead.

But we all know the only club where that will get applied.

Here's one from last week in Scotland it was even passed by VAR as a red.
Motherwell: Callum Slattery gets four-game ban for simulation - BBC Sport https://share.google/D5iT4IFGNt7FMZn6W

 

[judge]

They are all a pack of cheats - even our lot. If a player goes down clutching his face/head and the game has to be stopped, then it should be an automatic substitution (you can't mess about with head injuries). Anything within the last 15 minutes and no subs allowed, you just have to play on with 10 men (or fewer). Stop them abusing it to waste time on subs (tbf, i'd ban all subs in the last 10 minutes, it's just used to run the clock down). Some genuine people wil be affected by this but, when they all start whingeing, just say 'you brought it on yourselves and we can't trust you not to be cheating t***s.

 

[Voodoo Billy]

Maybe clubs should be encouraged to invite some of the poor lads, from whichever sport, who are now living with the long-term effects of serious head injuries to talk to today's players and coaching staff to make them realise that such injuries can cause irreversible and life-changing damage and shouldn't be viewed as just another opportunity to gain an advantage (i.e. cheat).

 

[trueblue84]

Here's one from last week in Scotland it was even passed by VAR as a red.
Motherwell: Callum Slattery gets four-game ban for simulation - BBC Sport https://share.google/D5iT4IFGNt7FMZn6W

That's ridiculous, giving a retrospective ban. If the ref, linesmen, fourth official and VAR don't see it, it is too late. Would you trust the premier League to consistently and fairly hand out retrospective punishments?

Maybe they should iust focus on the officials being less crap.

 

[Rita_Poon]

That's ridiculous, giving a retrospective ban. If the ref, linesmen, fourth official and VAR don't see it, it is too late. Would you trust the premier League to consistently and fairly hand out retrospective punishments?

Maybe they should iust focus on the officials being less crap.

Can understand it, made an example, he had hold of the player who tried to shrug him off and then the entire game authority failed as a unit and penalised the player the victim* had gotten hold of.
I'd have banned him for 10 games and fined the club £50k. Next fine will cost you £500k...