Sutton calls out Taylor over Alzheimer’s report

FORMER England striker Chris Sutton has accused Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Gordon Taylor of failing his members and their families over the issue of dementia.

Sutton, who said Taylor should apologise to those affected, spoke out after a new study said former footballers are approximately three-and-a-half times more likely to die from neurodegenerative disease than the general population.

“If Gordon Taylor had anything about him he would apologise to all his union members and their families who he has failed . . . his own members dying in the most horrible and humiliating way . . . he failed my dad (Mike, a former Norwich player) and hundreds more,” Sutton said on Twitter.

The report, released yesterday and commissioned by the Football Association and the PFA, assessed the medical records of 7,676 men who played professional football in Scotland and were born between 1900 and 1976.

Their records were matched against more than 23,000 individuals from the general population. The findings report that the “risk ranged from a fivefold i ncrease i n Alzheimer’s disease, through an approximately four-fold increase in motor neurone disease, to a two-fold increase in Parkinson’s disease in former professional footballers compared to population controls”.

Dr James Pickett, head of research at Alzheimer’s Society, urged people not to be put off “a Saturday kickabout in the park” by the study’s findings.

He said: “There have been changes in the game of football over the decades, for instance heavy leather balls have been replaced with lighter latex and plastic ones.”

Dundee manager James McPake.