Sir Bobby Charlton and his late brother Jack (left) suffered from dementia. Credit: Getty Images/Bob Thomas
A milestone £ The Premier League and the PFA have created a $1 million fund for former footballers with dementia.
This will be a major victory for campaigners, including the Telegraph Sport: The money will be immediately donated to the families of numerous former players with severe neurological conditions to help cover rising medical costs.
Telegraph Sport launched the «Solve Football Dementia» program. A 2016 scandal following the stories of hundreds of former professionals, including most of the 1966 World Cup winning team, who lived with dementia at a tragically young age.
A 2019 study found that former Field players were five times more likely to be diagnosed with dementia than the general population, and this has already led to new heading restrictions and the introduction of concussion substitutes.
An official statement in recognizing dementia in football as an industrial disease was also presented to the government with the support of figures such as Sir Alex Ferguson, but there was only limited financial assistance from within football for former players and their families.
Telegraph Sport specifically campaigned to study the prevalence of dementia among former players and to create a special care fund, as is the case in the NFL of American football. This followed extensive reports of those families who were afraid of losing their homes, lost their savings or were forced to raise funds to pay care costs, and repeated calls from campaigners backed by former England captains such as Gary Lineker, Kevin Keegan , Alan Shearer, Stuart Pearce, Terry Butcher and Dave Watson to a special football fund.
This was announced with an initial contribution of £1 million, of which about three-quarters will come from the Premier League and a quarter from PFA.
The Football Association and the English Football League have not yet contributed. to a foundation that will only deal with this issue for a limited period of time, but it is hoped that all football stakeholders will now step up and create a charitable organization that will become a long-term means of supporting families.
Families can apply immediately for discretionary funding, which will be overseen by an independent panel of experts led by Steve Jamieson, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Speech Therapists and trustee of Dementia UK.
The foundation's creation represents a personal triumph for Don Estle, daughter of former England striker Geoff, who died of dementia in 2002 at the age of 59. The coroner said that Jeff Astle died of an «industrial disease» as a result of repeatedly heading soccer balls, and an autopsy later revealed that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a type of dementia particularly associated with head impacts. Dawn Estle was vehemently critical of the PFA's initial response — and the lack of definitive research until 2019 — but then agreed to head the players' union's new dementia unit last year. Her number one priority was to create a new fund.
“People talk about greed in football – but what better way to show that the game is not limited to greed than to give back to those who die because they were former players,” Astle told Telegraph Sport last year. “What these families are going through is brutal. Many times my sons or daughters came to me and said: “If my father had not died then, we would have buried my mother first.”
Maheta Molango, chief executive of the PFA, expressed the hope that other football organizations, in addition to the Premier League, will be activated and provide funding. “This is an issue that we continue to believe in all areas that must be held accountable in all of football,” he said.
“This includes providing access to financial support for former players and the families that most need it.
“The Premier League is to be commended for its proactive approach to these discussions. We hope that other players in the game will be willing to contribute to the fund in the future.
“There is still a lot to be done, but this is a positive development that will help former players and their families and demonstrate how football should work together in this matter.»
Richard Masters, chief executive of the Premier League, said it was «important to offer our support to this newly created brain health fund» and that the funding will be based on support from former players experiencing health issues.
The FA is among the governing bodies facing legal action for negligent brain injury by a group that includes the family of 1966 World Cup winner Nobby Stiles, who also died of CTE. John Stiles, Nobby's son, said the new £1m fund would be «a drop in the ocean» given the scale of the problem. The FA said it has funded numerous studies and intends to «find answers» and has already taken steps to reduce risk factors that «may be associated with head-butting in football, using industry-leading concussion and head-butting guidelines at all levels of the football association.» «.
Judith Gates, founder of the charity Head Safe Football, hailed the announcement as «an important step forward» but stressed the need for continued continued support. «It's ironic that £1m is two weeks' worth of the Premier League's best player's payroll, when in fact it's only enough to cover the cost of caring for 10 to 12 families for a year,» she said. “This initial £1m should be seen as the start of a solution. It will take another 89 minutes of play and funding before the issue can be properly resolved.”
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