Does anyone prohibit players from wearing normal eyeglasses (as opposed to sports-specific glasses)? If so, at what level? (I'm curious, as my perception is that in the US it is generally accepted for prescription glasses to be worn.)
I wear glasses, although not when I'm playing soccer--too easy for them to get damaged, and I can see well enough that I don't need them to play. My understanding is that (at least in the US) the vast majority of children's glasses are polycarbonate or similar material that is not going to shatter. And with regular eyeglass frames, the likelihood of any increased injury risk to the player or anyone else seems incredibly minute.
I was curious as I was on British ref site where the consensus seems to be that normal eye glasses are roughly the equivalent of brass knuckles with sharpened spikes.
Best known pro player who wore glasses while playing was Dutch International Edgar Davids. He had a type of glaucoma that was stabilized by surgery but his vision was weak and he wore glasses from 1999 to the end of his career.
Didn't Edgar wear prescription sports goggles? That said, I allowed regular glasses in the youth games I did. In fact, I wore them in the youth games I did. Older youth often had sports goggles. Probably Mom and Dad bought them after Junior ruined a pair of his regular glasses.
I wore regular Prescription glasses (wire rim ) with a strap for lacrosse, ice hockey, football, and soccer. The most recent was an indoor soccer rec league about 5 yrs ago. I was once asked if the lenses were safety lenses.
I wear them. Then again I wear a watch and don't wear shinguards. I am yet to work for a league that bans them. In the games I center (U12 and below) I let them play.
I always wore glasses when I played (3rd grade through 9th grade). I experimented with a strap for a bit but it seemed to cause more damage to my face because the glasses weren't free to fall away. When I took my vision test in the 3rd grade that caused me to get the glasses, the only letter I could read was the big 'E' that takes up the whole screen, so I would have been at a disadvantage without them and it would have been more dangerous because I couldn't accurately judge the ball position, and I played keeper.
I was told by an assessor to let players wear glasses. However, they are not to wear sunglasses unless they have the glass that darkens in sunlight.