FA BLASTED OVER DEMENTIA FUNDING
MPs ‘appalled’ by top doc’s ignorance
The FA were lambasted by MPs yesterday for their ‘unacceptable’ and ‘appalling’ inability to say how much money they had spent on research into dementia.
The FA’s chief medical officer Dr Charlotte Cowie was grilled by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee, who are examining the link between sport and head trauma. Committee chair Julian Knight even questioned whether Dr Cowie was withholding information on funds because she was ‘too embarrassed’ by the figure.
On the day it was announced that Frank Worthington had become the latest footballer to pass away after being diagnosed with dementia, Knight asked Dr Cowie: ‘how don’t you know your research budget? You’re the chief medical officer. You’ve come in front of the committee. Is it because you don’t want to say? I’m almost speechless. Are you telling the truth?’
Dr Cowie did reveal that the FA had been advised by an independent expert panel to limit players’ exposure to heading in training — which was one of the seven points in Sportsmail’s campaign, launched in November.
As a result the Premier League are set to launch a study which will look at how heading the ball in different ways, such as from a short distance versus a long distance, can have differing impacts on the brain. This is expected to help shape guidelines for
heading practice at professional level. Yesterday’s hearing took place four months after Sportsmail launched its campaign to tackle football’s dementia problem. Our columnist Chris Sutton gave evidence via video link, explaining how his father, Mike, who also played professionally, died a ‘horrible death’ in December. Dawn Astle, the daughter of former England striker Jeff Astle, told MPs: ‘Football doesn’t want to think that football can be a killer. But I know it can be, because it’s on my dad’s death certificate.’ FA insiders were outraged by the treatment of Dr Cowie. A source told Sportsmail that they wanted a ‘constructive conversation’ to come out of the inquiry but instead felt the committee was only interested in chastising them. On Dr Cowie not disclosing their budget, Knight added: ‘I’m staggered that you have not come here today furnished with the information in terms of how much you’re spending on research. It’s completely unacceptable. ‘We’ve just been listening to people today, young athletes who are worried they are going to die as a result of their sport, and you are seriously telling this committee that you do not know how much the FA is spending on research into this topic in the last year? I just think you’re too embarrassed.’ Dr Cowie explained that there is ‘no funding limit’ on the FA’s research into this area. After adding she would never claim the FA have ‘done enough’, Knight responded: ‘I have to say, it would be absolutely farcical if you did.’ Point 1 of Sportsmail’s seven-point charter called for further funding from the FA and PFA for research. When discussing Dr Willie Stewart’s FIELD research, which confirmed a link between football and degenerative brain disease, Knight said: ‘£250,000, which was Dr Stewart’s entire budget for his research, is six weeks’ salary for Gordon Taylor at the head of the PFA, which I think says an awful lot.’ Point 6 regarded the need for temporary concussion substitutes rather than extra permanent ones, and Point 7 called for a limit on heading in training at all levels. Experts have told this newspaper that they recommend a maximum of 20 headers per session, with at least 48 hours between sessions. Sutton estimated yesterday that he headed the ball 100 times a week, 40 weeks a year, for 18 years, equating to 72,000 in total. Dr Cowie said: ‘We have concerns and we wish to decrease the exposure that players have to heading. We’ve been advised that should happen.’ Sportsmail understands the new study into the differing impacts when heading the ball from short and long distances, which involves the use of mouthguards to measure the force, will be Premier League-led. Restrictions are already in place in youth football but not at professional level. On this, Dr Cowie explained: ‘If you take 20 headers, for instance, if one of those is a shot header from a short distance and one is a long header from a long punted ball, those forces might be quite different. It might be 10 (from a long distance) was equivalent to 20 shorter ones. We want a little bit more detail on that before we rule within the professional game but we fully intend to do that, and also in the adult grassroots game.’ MPs pointed out to Dr Cowie that the FA have waited too long to act, with Heather Wheeler saying: ‘I’m almost lost for words. We’ve had all this science, we’ve got all this history, we’ve got a death certificate from 20 years ago and we’re now doing another survey after another survey because you don’t want to change anything.’ Dr Cowie was appearing on the same panel as World Rugby’s chief medical officer Dr Eanna Falvey, Team GB boxing and Team GB snow sports chief medical officer Dr Mike Loosemore and Bill Sweeney, chief executive of the Rugby Football Union.