The lack of support from English football authorities for the families of ex-players — like mine — who have suffered, or are suffering, with neurodegenerative diseases is a complete and utter disgrace.
Action is needed now. But what the Football Association and the Professional Footballers’ Association are doing is just kicking the can down the road.
When I learned that the HEADING study, which has been supported by the FA, has been accused of a conflict of interest after its initial findings failed to find a strong link between heading a ball and the onset of diseases such as dementia, I was not in the least bit surprised.
To have medical researchers involved in such a study, but also serving on other bodies who are deciding whether dementia in football is acknowledged as an industrial disease is, in anyone’s view, crooked.
Researchers involved in these issues must be independent. The researchers have since said they declared their potential conflict of interest to a medical journal ahead of the paper’s publication. But why did they not do that straight away?
A new study does not support the link between heading a football and poorer cognitive function. Jeff Astle (pictured in 1966) died in 2002 aged 59 with early-onset dementia
Man United and England icon Sir Bobby Charlton was diagnosed with dementia before passing
Nobby Stiles suffered with dementia for a number of years before his death in 2020
Stiles and Charlton won the World Cup with England in 1966 and the European Cup with Manchester United two years later
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All that does is support the view of many that football is trying to cover up the problem and delay meaningful action.
We are at the stage now where the evidence out there is irrefutable. It is abundantly clear that the impact of heading a football has led to former players suffering with dementia and other issues and that there is real potential for those who take to the field today to have similar problems in the future.
The HEADING study seems to suggest the opposite. That suits the FA down to the ground. It keeps the problem in the long grass.
Delay, delay, delay is their mantra. Football is doing nothing. It has been over three years now since my father died of dementia.
He and my family did not ask for direct for support from the PFA, but there are numerous others in the same position who have and have not been helped.
It frustrates me so much and makes me so, so angry. We are still in the position where the powers-that-be are being deliberately obstructive.
Putting everything into the mix, it’s all an absolute disgrace. At football’s highest level we’ve got managers and players like Pep Guardiola and Bernardo Silva whingeing about playing too many games.
The FA have immediately responded, and in controversial fashion too by cutting FA Cup replays.
Raphael Varane has admitted to playing in huge games while suffering the effects of concussion – and has pulled out of matches this season
Morgan Gibbs-White (left) and Beto (right) needed treatment after colliding on Sunday
The brutal impact was another reminder of the danger associated with head collisions
Mail Sport launched a campaign in 2020 for football to finally tackle its dementia scandal
But despite being well aware that former players are dying painful deaths as a result of their careers — and I can say that from personal experience — no action is being taken on that front.
Football is silent on the issue. You could even go as far as to say that with the HEADING study being accused of a conflict of interest, both the medical experts and authorities are complicit in stopping meaningful action from being taken. Such an approach is truly shameful.
We also saw last weekend an example which showed that the players of today need protecting from the dangers of head injuries when Everton’s Beto had a nasty collision with Morgan Gibbs-White of Nottingham Forest. Beto was knocked unconscious, but has since been released from hospital.
You didn’t see many tweets from Nottingham Forest about Gibbs-White’s welfare. Instead, their social media account hit out at VAR decisions.
That shows the focus of clubs is on performance — in Forest’s case Premier League survival — and not player welfare.
