Soccer: "Dementia 'conspiracy' is a stain on the game"

[nitpicker]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/05/30/footballs-silent-shame-dementia-conspiracy-is-a-stain-on-the-gam/

Football's silent shame: Dementia 'conspiracy' is a stain on the game


By Jeremy Wilson, Deputy Football Correspondent
30 May 2016 • 10:01pm

Football today stands accused of behaving like the notorious tobacco industry of the 1960s and has been warned that its “scandalous” failure to carry out research into the link between dementia and the world’s most popular sport risks legal action running into hundreds of millions of pounds. On Tuesday, The Telegraph launches a campaign to demand action on brain injuries potentially caused by football with the backing of those deeply affected plus medical experts.

The issue has been brought into sharp focus in this 50th anniversary year of the 1966 World Cup triumph, with four of the eight surviving outfield players of England’s greatest team now confirmed to be suffering with significant memory problems. Ray Wilson, Martin Peters and Nobby Stiles were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in their sixties while Jack Charlton has been struggling with memory loss since his late seventies.

According to the Alzheimer’s Society, the number of men suffering from dementia in the wider national population between the ages of 65 and 69 is one in 75, which only rises to around one in 10 from 80 to 84.

Experts have told us that the incidence rate among the 1966 heroes is “frightening” but they had already become alarmed by the anecdotal evidence of the devastating stories of hundreds of other former footballers. “It can’t be a coincidence – it seems almost to be of epidemic proportion,” said John Stiles, the son of Nobby and himself a former professional.

It is 14 years since an inquest ruled that former England striker Jeff Astle died of an industrial disease caused by the damage to his brain from playing football but a promised joint Football Association and Professional Footballers’ Association study into the wider risks was never published. However, after being presented with The Telegraph’s investigation, the FA, PFA and the Professional Game Board has today launched a new collaboration to examine what research should be done, potentially in conjunction with other sports.
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Jackie Charlton
Jack Charlton visited the Aviva Stadium in 2015 to watch the team he used to manage, the Republic of Ireland, take on the team he used to play for, England Credit: THE FA via Getty Images




A close family member of one of English football’s greatest players – who spoke to The Telegraph on condition of anonymity – claimed the publicised cases of dementia were the “tip of an iceberg” and that others, including some household names, were living privately with a degenerative condition.

Many others, the source said, are terrified of developing a disease. The suspicion is that players have suffered due to a combination of repeated heading of the ball and, as in American football, from collisions that might have occurred during a game. “It is extremely disappointing given the Jeff Astle verdict and the abundant anecdotal evidence that not one study has been completed,” said John Stiles.





Age groupPercentagePercentage of men suffering dementiaAlzheimer’s Society study of 2014Percentage60-6465-6970-7475-7980-8485-890%5%10%15%20%
image/svg+xmlHighcharts




Since the inquest in 2002, Jeff Astle’s family have been contacted by hundreds of other families with similar experiences. They have tried to work constructively with the authorities to find answers but have become exasperated and suspicious at football’s lack of action.

“They have tried to sweep dad’s death and the verdict from an inquest under a carpet because of fear, I think, for the implications of the product of football,” Jeff’s daughter, Dawn Astle, said. “I think they are terrified of what this research is going to show. It’s not a theory we concocted. It was a coroner. For a coroner to say dad’s job killed him and, 14 years on, to be no further forward is shocking. It was a landmark decision that would have had earthquake repercussions in any other industry. It feels like a huge conspiracy. It’s a disgrace. No one in football wants to find out if football is a killer.”







“It feels like a huge conspiracy. It’s a disgrace. No one in football wants to find out if football is a killer”
Dawn Astle



The neuropathologist who examined Astle’s brain and found chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) – a condition that can cause similar symptoms to dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or motor neuron disease but can only be diagnosed in a post-mortem – is Dr Willie Stewart, of the University of Glasgow. He drew a parallel with the scandal in American football that inspired the Hollywood film Concussion.

“It shouldn’t take 14 years to answer the question: Does participation in football alter your risk of dementia?” he said. “That could be answered in a year or two. Football has to step up and use a fraction of the vast sums of money they have to answer the question.” One study would be to take a sample of former players and compare the proportion to have subsequently developed a degenerative brain condition compared to the wider incidence rate.

“We have teams in the 1950s and 1960s where five or six of the players have developed dementia,” said Stewart. “One player perhaps would be in the odds but when you see that in team after team you really have to start wondering. I’m surprised football isn’t embracing this.

In American football, not embracing it, pursuing it and getting the data meant people have withdrawn from the game. The grass-roots participation collapsed. There is also a duty of care to current and former players. If they are given due notice that there may be a problem and do nothing about it, they could end up facing similar action to American football where they have been sued for $1?billion [£684?million].”





Jeff Astle's widow Lorraine and her grandchildren open the Jeff Astle Memorial Gates at the Hawthorns in 2003
Jeff Astle's widow Lorraine and her grandchildren open the Jeff Astle Memorial Gates at the Hawthorns in 2003 Credit: Action Images




Dr Michael Grey is a motor neuroscience physiologist at the University of Birmingham. “I liken this to the old smoking debate,” he said. “The tobacco companies were saying there is no link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. In the 1950s and 1960s, there was no conclusive link but of course we now know there is. That is the stage we are at.

"We don’t have the conclusive evidence so it is easy to say these players would have got it anyway. But I think when you start to look at the proportion, and the 1966 team, it is frightening. That’s just not an incidence rate that one would expect in the normal population. I am shocked at Fifa, the FA and the PFA. I just do not understand why they have not invested in independent research.”







Dawn Astle met representatives of the FA in 2014 and was told that they would forward research questions to Fifa. She was then enraged last month when she read Dr Ian Beasley, the FA’s outgoing head of medical services, saying that it would “imminently” put questions to Fifa.

She sent an immediate email to FA chairman Greg Dyke and PFA deputy chief executive John Bramhall and said that the “lack of respect for those who have died and their families who have seen them stripped of all dignity is beyond belief”.

Dyke and the PFA chief executive, Gordon Taylor, have since replied to Dawn Astle and a meeting has been arranged with Charlotte Cowie, the FA’s new head of performance medicine. Taylor said the PFA had been approached by “quite a number” of former professionals, including “some relatively young ex-players”, with symptoms of cognitive decline. “I share the frustration, this does need addressing,” said Taylor. “There is a momentum gathering but it is not happening quickly enough. I will be disappointed if, by the end of year, the research has not started.”





When West Ham won the World Cup
West Ham United's Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters at Wembley after winning the World Cup in 1966 Credit: REX




An FA spokesman said that it was working extensively to better understand head injuries and pointed to its new guidelines for on-field concussion. As well as working with the PFA and saying it is “committed” to supporting research, the FA believes that “a consolidated approach” is also needed globally. “If the FA acts alone, the findings are less powerful and more likely to result in vague conclusions,” said a spokesman. Fifa has not replied to a series of questions from The Telegraph.

Dawn Astle described her family as “aghast” at the idea that Fifa, an organisation that has been so tarnished, would be best placed to carry out research. “It’s like having cigarette companies looking into the dangers of cigarettes,” she said. “One study of NFL players found they are 19 times more likely to have some degenerative brain disease. It wouldn’t surprise me if football is higher.”

Stewart, who is part of the FA’s panel on concussion, is also adamant that individual national bodies can initiate immediate independent research.

“Surely the FA, the Scottish FA, the Welsh FA, the Premier League and all these organisations must have some duty of care to players,” he said. “Why does Fifa have to tell our UK sports organisations to do what I would have thought is morally right? It’s ridiculous. It seems that there has been a lot of shuffling around and not much movement forwards.”

[HuckleB]

1. You should post this in the soccer forum, and or the sports forum.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1215

Thanks for sharing.