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Post by rugbytoffee on Jul 28, 2016 17:31:20 GMT
 Dawn Astle has been invited to join the Football Association’s expert panel on head injuries as an observer ahead of a promised new study into the correlation between football and degenerative brain disease. Dawn’s father, Jeff, died at the age of 59 from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a condition that can be diagnosed only in a post-mortem but which causes symptoms consistent with a range of degenerative brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s and motor neurone disease. The prevalence of these symptoms among many former footballers was highlighted by a Telegraph campaign this year and is causing increasingly alarm among former players and their families. Saturday marks the 50th anniversary of the 1966 World Cup triumph but four of the eight surviving outfield players are now suffering with Alzheimer’s or significant memory loss. The proportion is well above the incidence rates in the wider population and also consistent with a strong anecdotal sense that footballers are at particular risk. Astle’s death was diagnosed as being directly attributable to playing football and, while there is a theory that the old leather balls were to blame, a promised joint study by the FA and Professional Footballers’ Association was never published. Neurologists have stressed that the diseases could be caused by concussions following impact and have pointed out that the added velocity of the new balls could make them just as dangerous. The Astle family have been calling for research ever since Jeff’s death in 2002 and, after apologies for the glacial pace of previous progress, do now sense that the English authorities might finally take meaningful action. Dr Charlotte Cowie, the FA’s new head of performance medicine, held a three-hour meeting with Dawn, her sister Claire and Jeff’s widow Laraine at St George’s Park. The family felt deeply disappointed that a previous meeting with former FA chairman Greg Dyke in 2014 had not led to more urgent progress but do now feel more encouraged. “The meeting with Dr Cowie was emotional for us but very passionate and positive,” said Dawn “It was the first time I have walked away from a meeting feeling some confidence that they were going to see this through. They’ve agreed now to involve the family. They also confirmed they are in early talks with researchers for a UK-based study on the long-term affects of playing football and brain function.” The Jeff Astle Foundation has been invited to a research symposium in November at Twickenham which aims to draw together potential researchers and funders into concussion in sport, while Dawn will join the FA’s expert panel on head injuries in an observer’s capacity. The panel includes Dr Willie Stewart, the neuropathologist who examined Jeff’s brain and diagnosed CTE. |
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Post by rugbytoffee on Feb 15, 2017 14:47:43 GMT
Fifa reiterate that they know of no "true evidence" regarding the negative effects of heading footballs after new British research published in scientific journal Acta Neuropathologica suggested a potential link between repeated heading and dementia in professional players.
In an study funded by the Drake Foundation and carried out by the Queen Square Brain Bank for Neurological Disorders at University College London (UCL) and Cardiff University, next-of-kin gave permission for the brains of six deceased former footballers who had suffered from dementia – five professionals and one committed amateur who had played the sport for an average of 26 years and were all considered to be skilled headers of the ball – to undergo post-mortem examination. Evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) was found in four.
Such a finding was said to be "probably related to their past prolonged exposure to repetitive head impacts from head-to-player collisions and heading the ball thousands of time throughout their careers". According to author Dr Helen Ling, it is the first time that CTE, a potential cause of dementia, has been confirmed in a group of retired footballers.
Responding to IBTimes UK's request for comment to that latest study, a Fifa spokesperson stated that world football's governing body had been actively following the issue of head and brain injuries for more than 15 years and had collaborated on scientific studies published in peer-reviewed journals in addition to attending the Fifth International Consensus Conference on Concussion in Sport (ICCCS) back in November 2016.
They also pointed to a new head injury protocol introduced in 2014 and suggested that head injuries could be "reduced significantly" by The International Football Association Board's (IFAB) 2006 rule change that deemed elbows to the head to be worthy of a red card.
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Post by Avinalaff on Feb 15, 2017 14:50:44 GMT
It never did me any harm. What were we on about again?  |
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Post by rugbytoffee on Mar 24, 2021 16:16:56 GMT
The daughter of a South Derbyshire footballing legend has welcomed the opening of a parliamentary inquiry investigating links between playing sport and long-term brain injury, saying the issue has been “swept under the carpet” for too long.
The death of Jeff Astle in 2002 was determined by a coroner to be the result of a neurodegenerative condition caused by repeated heading of a football during his professional football career. He was a former West Bromwich Albion and England striker and lived in Netherseal.
MPs on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee will hear evidence from a range of individuals with a connection to the issue over the coming weeks, and daughter, Dawn Astle, said it had been “a long time coming”.
“I just hope really that (the MPs) leave no stone unturned,” she told the PA news agency.
“For millions of people around the world, we’re huge fans of the game. But for the player, it is just their job, and they should be afforded the same protection from known risks as anybody else in any other job.
“Just because they’re sportsmen shouldn’t mean it doesn’t matter, because it’s part of the game. That’s not acceptable when players are dying.”
The 2019 FIELD study, commissioned by the Football Association and the Professional Footballers’ Association, found professional footballers were three and a half times more likely to die of neurodegenerative disease than age-matched members of the general population.
Miss Astle, who is currently supporting the PFA on an advisory basis, said that study would not have been conducted without the pressure her family placed on the authorities.
“This issue has been swept under the carpet for far too long,” she said.
“The FIELD study wasn’t done out of the goodness of the heart of the FA or the PFA, that study was done because my family wouldn’t let them sweep it under the carpet.
“It was my family who had the meeting with (former FA chairman) Greg Dyke and said, ‘you need to be looking back – have we got a problem with our former players?’ And we clearly have.
“I suppose Greg wasn’t in charge of the FA when my dad died – (PFA chief executive) Gordon Taylor has been around forever.
“I want to know why they didn’t do enough.”
The dangers of heading were being talked about as far back as 1966 – in a pamphlet included within the Football League Review in 1966, which was included within match programmes.
Under the headline ‘Danger in Heading the Ball?’ the article began ‘Perhaps it explains a lot the allegation by a doctor that boxing isn’t the only sport that can produce ‘punchies’.
‘This man from the hospital corridors says it’s been discovered that football has its ‘punchdrunks’ – men who have headed the ball far too often’.
Ms Astle added: “It is time for the Government to get involved. I’ve asked the PFA and Gordon what they have done in the 19 years since my dad died, I’ve asked the FA the same question.
“It’s all right Greg Dyke apologising and saying ‘we haven’t done enough’ – why didn’t you? It’s all right saying to Gordon, ‘what did you do? How many players were affected?’ He didn’t know. He still doesn’t know. Why doesn’t he? He should know.
“This isn’t a metatarsal injury or a broken leg, this is something that is killing former players at a hugely increased rate.”
The PFA said it is “committed to funding research, supporting former members and their families who are living with dementia, and identifying areas within the game to protect current players”.
A statement from the organisation continued: “The PFA Charity funded FIELD Study provided the first major insights into lifelong health outcomes in former professional footballers. Alongside the FA, the PFA has committed to funding further research to advance the FIELD study’s findings.
“Separately, the PFA Charity has extended the project with Glasgow University until 2022 and supports three other existing research projects. At the beginning of this year, Dawn Astle and Rachel Walden started advisory roles at the PFA to shape the long-term care support offered to members.
“The players’ union is also working towards stronger protections for current players, including lobbying IFAB for the introduction of temporary concussion substitutions, reduced heading frequency in training and rest periods in between heading sessions.”
The FA added: “We have a clear and unwavering commitment, both financially and with resource, to support objective, robust and thorough research going forward.”
Dr Willie Stewart, consultant neuropathologist and honorary professor at the University of Glasgow, said: “This investigation… is timely and welcomed.
“Best evidence supports the association between elite-level contact sports and increased risk of dementia and similar conditions. The challenge now is to reduce this risk… while also working with former athletes to improve their brain health once they have left the game.”
England manager Gareth Southgate is involved in one such project – the HEADING study which is being conducted by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and is supported by the FA.
Legal actions are set to be brought forward by the families of former footballers suffering with dementia in the coming months, while a letter of claim on behalf of a group of rugby union players has already been lodged with World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union.
Progressive Rugby, a lobby group calling for the urgent reform of the sport and which includes former England international James Haskell, said it welcomed the new inquiry.
The first evidence session is due to take place next Tuesday. The Alzheimer’s Society has already confirmed that its head of research, Dr Richard Oakley, had been called as a witness, as has the chief executive of brain injury charity Headway, Peter McCabe.
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