Current footballers need to 'wise up' and take a stand against the decision-makers in the game that refuse to introduce temporary concussion substitutes.
IFAB met in London earlier this week to discuss trialling the protocol after a FIFPro request to roll it out in the English Premier League, French Ligue 1 and North America's Major League Soccer.
Both the PFA and FA backed the move but IFAB did not green-light a trial despite what FA CEO Mark Bullingham revealed was the “longest conversation” of the IFAB meeting.
Former Celtic striker Sutton, whose ex-footballer dad Mike died in 2020 after suffering with dementia following, posted on Twitter: “So the trial of temporary concussion substitutes for next season has been rejected at the IFAB meeting today. When are this current group of players going to actually wise up and make a stand against football’s powers that be so they get the best duty of care… it’s so idiotic.”
CEO of Headway, the brain injury association, Luke Griggs added: “It is hard to fathom the flawed logic behind this bitterly disappointing decision.
“The argument for the continuation of the current system appears to be that permanent concussion substitutes prevent injured players from returning to the pitch and therefore is a safer system, but this completely misrepresents the benefits of temporary concussion substitutes.
“We commend the Premier League and FA for making the case for temporary concussion substitutions, but all that has been achieved by this decision is to deny the application of an additional layer of protection to players and further damage football’s credibility when it comes to brain injury.”
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