Friday 28 February 2020 11:16, UK
A member of the expert concussion group set up to advise football's law-makers is "pessimistic" about the prospect of 10-minute temporary concussion substitutions being piloted next season.
The International Football Association Board (IFAB) is holding its annual general meeting in Belfast on Saturday, with a discussion on managing and assessing suspected concussion on the agenda.
However, Dr Vincent Gouttebarge, the chief medical officer of world players' union FIFPRO, says there was "no consensus" in terms of the best way forward when the expert group, which will advise the IFAB, met at the end of January.
He favours a 10-minute assessment period for a player suspected of concussion with a temporary substitute coming on, and staying on if the player taken off is considered unable to return.
Asked whether he was hopeful of his favoured proposal being piloted next season, Gouttebarge said: "There was no consensus to do so within the expert group. There was a little bit of reluctance to move towards a temporary substitution.
"On Saturday I assume they are going to say that there was no consensus, that more time is needed to explore whether a temporary substitution should be the way to go, because a temporary substitute might be misused.
"I'm a little bit pessimistic that we are not going to have a clear decision very soon which can change the laws of the game and provide medical teams with sufficient time to assess players with potential concussion."
Gouttebarge said other members of the panel were concerned the temporary substitutions could be misused or abused by players and coaches, but he insisted it was impossible and "ridiculous" that a player would fake a concussion to gain an advantage.
"These kinds of thoughts were disclosed - to fake an injury is difficult, to fake a concussion is not only difficult, it's a ridiculous assumption that people make," he said.
"We all know players dive in order to get a penalty, but faking a concussion? No. I think it's another level and another dimension.
"If you are afraid of that, IFAB might be empowered to have a pilot scheme in a particular country, and then you evaluate in that country whether a coach/player misused this particular rule or not. But just to base an important decision concerning the health of a player only on an assumption like that, I feel it's ridiculous.
"Health and safety should be priority number one. Three minutes (to assess a player) is not enough.
"We are on the move with the concussion dossier, but we are not moving very fast. We are very conservative in football, and I would say in comparison to other contact sports where concussion is an issue, we make a fool of ourselves when it comes to our concussion approach again and again."
World governing body FIFA did not wish to comment on Gouttebarge's remarks, and the IFAB was not immediately available for comment.
