GAME’S SEARCH FOR ANSWERS

WHO CONDUCTED THE STUDY?

THE FA and PFA announced in 2017 that they would be co-funding the study titled Football’s Influence on Lifelong Health and Dementia Risk, or FIELD for short. Dr Willie Stewart of Glasgow University led the research.

WHAT DID THE STUDY ENTAIL?

RESEARCHERS compared the causes of death of 7,676 men who played professional football in Scotland and were born between 1900 and 1976 against those of more than 23,000 from the general population.

WHAT WERE ITS FINDINGS?

IT revealed that former footballers are approximately three-and-a-half times more likely to die from neurodegenerative disease. For the first time, a link between football and dementia was confirmed.

ANY OTHER CONCLUSIONS?

THE report revealed that although footballers had a higher risk of death from neurodegenerative disease, they were less likely to die of other conditions, such as heart disease, and some cancers, such as lung cancer.

WHAT DID DR STEWART SAY?

‘This analysis revealed that risk ranged from a five-fold increase in Alzheimer’s disease, through an approximately four-fold increase in motor neurone disease, to a twofold in Parkinson’s disease in former professional footballers compared to population controls.’

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

THE FA and PFA have called on FIFA and UEFA to further research this issue, with English football’s governing body saying: ‘It’s now incumbent on the wider game to gain greater understanding of the potential cause for the link with dementia and whether or not the results from this historic group of former professional footballers relates, in any way, to the modernday professional footballer.’

WILL WE SEE ANY CHANGES?

THERE will be more calls for concussion substitutes to be introduced and for an independent doctor to be used at matches, rather than club doctors.