FA to reveal findings of study into possible link between dementia and football
The FA and Professional Footballers' Association announced in November 2017 that a Glasgow-based team would try to find out if ex-players were more prone to degenerative brain disease later in life than the general population.
The Football Association will today reveal the findings of its research into dementia and football.
The FA and Professional Footballers' Association announced in November 2017 that a Glasgow-based team would try to find out if ex-players were more prone to degenerative brain disease later in life than the general population.
The study - led by Dr William Stewart and titled 'Football's Influence on Lifelong Health and Dementia Risk', or FIELD for short - was picked by the FA's expert panel on concussion after an open tender process and began in January 2018.
Brain injury charities welcomed the announcement of the research, but questioned why it took so long and said one study would not be enough.
The UK's leading brain injury charity Headway described the news as positive at the time, but qualified its support for the project.
In a statement, Headway chief executive Peter McCabe said: "For years we have been calling on football authorities to initiate this research and, while we welcome the fact that action is finally being taken, it should never have taken so long to get to this point.
"We hope this research will finally provide some answers to families who for too long have been fighting to gain a better understanding of whether or not their loved ones' dementia was caused by heading a football.
"Equally, players - and indeed parents - deserve answers on the question of whether or not they are at risk from today's lightweight footballs, and we question whether or not this study will be able to provide any meaningful insight into this."
The other main criticism is that 17 years have now passed since former England and West Brom striker Jeff Astle died with what a coroner described as an "industrial injury''.
Since Astle's death, the families of dozens of other ex-footballers, including several from England's 1966 World Cup-winning squad, have come forward to reveal their stories of dealing with dementia and related illnesses.
In a statement, Dr Stewart, who is based at Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, said: "In the past decade there have been growing concerns around perceived increased risk of dementia through participation in contact sports, however, research data to support and quantify this risk have been lacking.
"Through the FIELD study we hope to be able to provide some understanding of the long-term health impact of football within the next two to three years."