The SFA’s new guidelines on restricting heading footballs in training are welcome.
It has been heartbreaking in recent years to see many football legends have their lives cruelly blighted by dementia.
The families of Gordon McQueen, Billy McNeill and Frank Kopel can all give testimony to the impact of this devastating illness.
The link to repeated heading of footballs and brain impairment has long been suspected and evidence now seems overwhelming.
Every measure possible must be taken to make the sport safer.
Heading is such a fundamental part of the game that it would need a revolution in the sport to restrict it or rule it out altogether during matches.
It’s hard to see how that could ever work.
So, the next best thing is to cut back the amount of heading during practice.
The SFA guidelines announced this week restrict training exercises involving repeated heading to once a week and bans all heading the day before and after a match.
These sensible measures are workable and coaches and managers will tailor their sessions to make sure the rules are adhered to by all.
The SFA is to be commended for leading the way in making the game safer and other national associations should follow suit.
We want the legends of tomorrow to remember their great achievements and not have the memories they made for us all to enjoy stolen by dementia.
Credit cruelty
The Welfare State exists to help everyone who needs it.
Claiming benefits if you are unable to find work or suffering from ill-health should not cause you to be stigmatised.
And it is always worth repeating that many people claiming Universal Credit are already in employment.
But if claimants fail to meet tough restrictions on the number or hours worked each week, they can be sanctioned.
The UK Government has progressively toughened its sanctions system over the last decade.
It means more and more hard-up people have money taken off them at a time they need it most.
Few people expect benefits to be handed over by the government with no strings attached.
But making people poorer when they are already struggling financially seems pointlessly harsh.
A sensible reform would be to escalate written warnings if certain conditions are not met.
Taking money from people’s pockets cannot be the answer.
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