GENEVA (AP) — FIFA teamed up with the World Health Organization on Wednesday for a campaign to educate the soccer industry about the risks of concussion injuries.
“Concussion is a public health issue of concern at all levels of football, and many other sports, requiring greater levels of awareness and action,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
Ten years after the alarming case in the 2014 World Cup final of Germany player Christoph Kramer, world soccer governing body FIFA is sending a toolkit to each of its 211 national federations to help teach at all levels of soccer that symptoms of a head injury can take up to 72 hours to appear.
Kramer continued to play in the final against Argentina for 14 minutes after being injured despite being in clear distress. Match referee Nicola Rizzoli later said he alerted Germany players after Kramer asked if he was playing in the final.
At the 2022 World Cup, Iran goalkeeper Ali Beiranvand was treated for several minutes on the field after clashing heads with a teammate, then continued to play on against England before finally being replaced.
FIFA favors letting teams make an extra substitution to remove immediately a player with a suspected head injury. That lets team medical staff evaluate injuries at length without the pressure of trying to send players back into the game.
At soccer’s rules-making panel, known as IFAB, FIFA has consistently blocked proposals to allow temporary substitutions that would let injured players with a suspected concussion be assessed just for several minutes before potentially returning to the game. FIFA medical advice is that symptoms can take up to 72 hours to develop.
“The symptoms of a concussion can change or evolve within the minutes, hours, days and even weeks after the traumatic event,” FIFA said of the new “Suspect and Protect” campaign. “No match is worth the risk.”
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FILE- Iran's goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand reacts after sustaining an injury during the World Cup group B soccer match between England and Iran at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar, on Nov. 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
FILE - Germany's Christoph Kramer lies on the pitch as teammate Thomas Mueller assists him, during the World Cup final soccer match between Germany and Argentina at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 13, 2014. (AP Photo/Francois Xavier Marit, Pool, File)
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England kept its main interest rate unchanged at 5% Thursday despite a big cut from the U.S. Federal Reserve, its first since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic more than four years ago.
The decision was widely expected amid ongoing concerns about inflation within the bank’s monetary policy committee, particularly the elevated levels in the crucial services sector, which accounts for around 80% of the British economy. Figures on Wednesday showed that inflation overall in the U.K. held steady at an annual rate of 2.2% in August, still above the bank’s goal.
Minutes to the meeting showed that eight of the nine members of the panel voted to keep rates unchanged, while one backed a quarter-point reduction.
The bank, which last month cut interest rates for the first time since the pandemic, is widely expected to reduce borrowing costs again at its next meeting in November, especially as it will have details of the government’s budget on Oct. 30.
On Wednesday, the Fed cut its main interest by half of a percentage point to roughly 4.8% from a two-decade high of 5.3%, where it had stood for 14 months. It also signaled that there will be more cuts to come in the next few months.
Central banks around the world dramatically increased borrowing costs from near zero during the coronavirus pandemic when prices started to shoot up, first as a result of supply chain issues built up and then because of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine which pushed up energy costs. As inflation rates have fallen from multi-decade highs recently, they have started cutting interest rates.
On Wednesday, the Fed became the latest major central bank to reduce borrowing costs, cutting its main interest by half of a percentage point to roughly 4.8% from a two-decade high of 5.3%, where it had stood for 14 months. It also signaled that there will be more cuts to come in the next few months.
The Bank of England is widely expected to reduce borrowing costs again at its next meeting in November, especially as it will have details of the government's budget on Oct. 30.
The new Labour government has said that it needs to plug a 22 billion pound ($29 billion) hole in the public finances and has indicated that it may have to raise taxes and lower spending, which would likely weigh on the near-term outlook for the British economy and put downward pressure on inflation.
Bank of England widely expected to hold interest rates despite big US Fed cut
FILE - The Bank of England is pictured in London, on Aug. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)
Bank of England widely expected to hold interest rates despite big US Fed cut
