No heading at Under 11: this season's rule changes, explained for parents

If your child moves up to U11 this season, their matches now run under the same no-heading rules the younger age groups already use. The change is the final step of a three-season phase-out the FA announced in May 2024: U7 to U9 matches from 2024/25, U10 from 2025/26, and U11 from this season. The whole U7 to U11 range is now covered.

How a match works without heading

A deliberate header gives the other team an indirect free kick from where it happened. If it happens inside the penalty area, the free kick moves to the nearest point on the side of the area. Nobody gets booked for an instinctive header; a card only comes into it if a player keeps doing it deliberately.

Throw-ins change too. When the ball goes out, play restarts with a pass-in or dribble-in from the line, with opponents standing five yards back. You cannot score straight from one. The point is to keep the ball on the floor and keep the game moving, and the FA tested all of this with around 16,000 teams and 107,000 players over two seasons before making it a rule.

Why the FA did it

Research the FA commissioned found former professional players were around three and a half times more likely to be diagnosed with dementia than the general population. Nobody has proven what a childhood of heading does or does not do, and the FA has decided not to wait to find out. At an age where the whole game is about learning the ball, repeated impacts to the head buy a young player nothing.

Training has the same rules, by age

The FA's guidance covers the training pitch as well as match day:

U7 to U11: no heading practice at all. Sessions should be about ball mastery and fundamentals.

U12 to U13: heading can be introduced, with hard limits: one session a week at most, a maximum of five headers, light balls, short distances, unopposed.

U14 to U16: still one session a week, capped at ten headers per player.

What this means at NW Elite

Very little changes on the pitch at Cardinal Heenan, and that is the point worth taking away. Our sessions from U5 up have always been built around touches, technique and decisions on the floor, which is exactly where the FA is pushing the whole youth game. Our coaches are FA qualified and work to the FA's age-group guidance, so a U11 parent will see the same football they saw last season: small groups, lots of the ball, heads used for thinking.

For players moving into U12 and U13, heading arrives the way the guidance says it should: gradually, in small controlled doses, with light balls and no opposed drills. If you have questions about what that looks like for your child, ask any of the coaches on a training night or message @nweliteacademy.

The short version for parents

U11 matches join the no-heading rules this season. A deliberate header gives away an indirect free kick, throw-ins become pass-ins, and nobody gets carded for a reflex. Training stays heading-free up to U11 and tightly limited after that. Your child loses nothing worth keeping and spends more time doing what actually develops them at this age: playing football with the ball at their feet.

Sources: The FA: new heading rules for grassroots youth matches · England Football: FA guidance on heading

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