Express & Star

Landmark research not the end of the story over football's dementia scandal

The establishing of a link between playing football and neurodegenerative diseases should rightly be seen as a landmark moment.

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Albion's Jeff Astle, and right, his daughter Dawn who has been part of the long-running campaign (Picture, right: © AMA)

But we are a long, long way from the end of this story. In many regards, we are only at the beginning. The scandal is it has taken so long to get this far.

It will be 17 years next month since a coroner ruled Jeff Astle’s death was the result of an ‘industrial disease’ brought about by repeatedly heading the ball.

It is more than five since the Albion legend’s death was found not to be caused by dementia, as first thought, but chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive brain condition traditionally associated with boxers.

The response to all of this by the sport’s custodians was characterised, for the most part, by inaction and denial.

Research was promised, by both the FA and the Professional Footballers’ Association following the initial inquest in 2002 but then quietly discontinued having reached no conclusions.

Only in January 2018, after years of campaigning by the Astle family, was an investigation finally launched.

The findings, revealed on Monday, are what many had suspected.

If you are a former professional footballer, you are three-and-a-half times more likely to die from dementia than the rest of the population.

For Jeff’s widow Laraine and daughters Dawn, Claire and Dorice, the overwhelming sensation was one of relief.

Jeff Astle's wife Laraine with daughters Dawn and Claire who helped set up a foundation in his name

This was not a fight they ever wanted, or one they should ever have been required to take on.

It was, however, one they fought on behalf of hundreds of other families through the Jeff Astle Foundation.

“For a long time we always felt we had to justify ourselves, justify the cause. People would say we were only in it for compensation,” explained Dawn.

“It is not something we ever wanted to do. We should have been spending time grieving for a husband, a dad and a grandad. This is something we have had to do.”

Dawn has called for a public inquiry into what the FA and PFA knew about the risks, while she is calling on the latter to fund a comprehensive care plan to support those former players and their families suffering with brain-related illnesses.

An annual benevolent fund to which families can apply for help towards care costs does exist. But at £565,000, it is less than a third of chief executive's Gordon Taylor £2million annual earnings.

More research is also planned and required, for though the study carried out by Dr Willie Stewart at the University of Glasgow was the most comprehensive of its kind, perhaps the most frightening aspect is how much we still don’t know.

Stewart and his team compared the health records of 7,676 former Scottish footballers born between 1900 and 1976 to 23,000 people from the general population who had the same birth year and similar social background.

They found deaths in former players were lower than expected before the age of 70, while they were also less likely to die from heart disease and lung cancer.

But the risks for ex-footballers ranged from a five-fold increase in Alzheimer’s disease to a four-fold increase in motor neurone disease. Former players were also twice as likely to suffer from Parkinson’s disease.

What the study could not establish was the precise cause. It was unable to conclude, for certain, whether heading the ball was responsible for the increased risk.

Finding the answers to those questions will now be the focus of further research by Stewart and his team over the next 18 months. That does not mean the authorities can afford to wait around for the work to be complete.

Now is the time to be proactive, to prove they have learned from past mistakes. For this is not an issue only concerning former footballers but one very much of relevance to everyone who plays the game today, at any level.

Just because footballs are designed differently for the modern game, compared to those used in Astle’s day, does not necessarily decrease the risk - despite what the FA claimed in the aftermath of his 2002 inquest.

Jeff Astle's death was the result of an ‘industrial disease’ brought about by repeatedly heading the ball

“There is nothing whatsoever that suggests the risk of head injury is greater with an old football made of leather than a modern football made of synthetics,” said Dr Stewart this week.

Stewart wants immediate action to be taken and is among those in favour of a ban on heading in junior football, such as that introduced in the United States four years ago.

Campaigners, meanwhile, believe there is an urgent need for the authorities to review how they deal with concussion injuries.

The introduction of concussion substitutes, as advocated this week by FA chairman Greg Clarke, would be a step in the right direction.

There are many, however, who feel the FA needs to ensure its existing concussion protocol, introduced in 2017, is properly enforced with the introduction of independent doctors to make the final decision on whether a player remains on the pitch.

“Concussions can be very complex and it takes time for the symptoms to emerge,” explained Luke Griggs, deputy chief executive of Headway, the brain industry association which has campaigned alongside the Astle Foundation.

“At the moment it is down to club doctors, who are being asked to make the decision quickly, in some cases with 50,000 fans shouting in their ear.

“In many cases, they are having to trust what the players are telling them.”

Griggs claims to have spoken to several doctors at Premier League clubs who would welcome a change in regulation.

FA chairman Greg Clarke

After this week, nothing no longer seem an option.

There is perhaps no other single issue which could change the game as much as this one. Football is not the only sport which needs to improve its management of head injuries, but it is the wealthiest and has been painfully slow to react.

Dawn believes changes need to come at every level of the game, including grassroots.

“This was never about telling people whether they should play football or not,” said Dawn.

“The important part of this was establishing the risks that can be involved.

“Nobody can live in a bubble. There will always be risk but what we can be is more informed as to what they are.

"For too long, nothing was done. We can't ever again allow the authorities to just assume things are OK.

"We don't want dad, or all those other players who have died and suffered, to become statistics. They should remain on the conscious of the sport forever."