The two studies - one from Saarland University in Germany and the other from Hampden Sports Clinic and Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board in Scotland - were approved by the UEFA Medical Committee following the recommendation of a panel of experts.

Research into heading a football has identified "significant" changes in brain function from routine practice, a study published in 2016 by the University of Stirling discovered. 

The study was the first to detect direct changes after players are exposed to everyday head impacts, as opposed to clinical brain injuries like concussion. 

The findings come after concerns that players’ brains are damaged by repeated head impacts.

The former England and West Bromwich Albion striker Jeff Astle died in 2002 at the age of 59, suffering from early onset dementia which a coroner found was caused by heading footballs and gave the cause of death as "industrial disease".

UEFA published a call for research proposals in May 2017 in which researchers were asked to address two questions. 

Firstly, to determine the burden of heading in youth football, addressing differences in the way headers are taught in football training, and differences in the incidence and characteristics of football headers in matches and training, and in different age and gender categories, while also taking into consideration variations caused by the different traditions and playing styles of the countries. 

Secondly, proposals were also invited to provide data to determine whether heading in youth football has any effect on players’ brain structure and function.

The UEFA Medical Committee’s expert panel reviewed the 10 proposals that were received by the deadline, and recommended that UEFA proceed with the two aforementioned proposals from Saarland University and Hampden Sports Clinic for the first research question. 

The two research groups have now signed contracts with UEFA and have started their work, with initial results expected at the end of 2018.

The panel also recommended that UEFA not proceed with any study for the second question - on the effect of heading on players’ brain structure and function - until results of the studies to determine the burden of heading had been received.

"This is a topic of the utmost importance, and I am proud that UEFA is taking a lead in commissioning this research," Dr Michel D’Hooghe, chairman of the UEFA Medical Committee, said.

"UEFA places the highest priority on player welfare and this research is a fundamental first step in establishing whether or not heading poses a risk to young players."