Ifab’s expert concussion panel criticised as too close to the game
A leading neuropathologist has questioned whether the “expert” group which is deciding football’s on-field response to brain injuries is being “sold under false pretences” after it emerged that it is loaded with football insiders.
The Telegraph can reveal that half of the 14-person “concussion expert group” are either managers, administrators or former referees, including Arsene Wenger, Pierluigi Collina and David Elleray, while every medical professional either works for or has been closely associated with a football governing body.
It is understood that only one member of the group – which also contains the chief executives of the Scotland and Ireland Football Associations, the vice-president of the Nigeria Football Federation and exscotland women’s head coach Shelley Kerr – is a specialist in neurology.
The International Football Association Board’s expert group has collectively favoured trials for permanent concussion substitutes, which the Premier League yesterday agreed, rather than temporary head injury replacements to give medical experts additional off-field assessment time.
Brain injury charities Headway and the Jeff Astle Foundation, world players’ union Fifpro and several leading neuropathologists had publicly urged football to follow other sports with the temporary option.
Dr Willie Stewart, whose research proved football’s dementia link, questioned the overall make-up of the group. “Rather than a panel of concussion experts it appears instead to be an expert panel of football doctors and administrators and, as such, might be argued is being sold under false pretences,” he said.
“This also might explain why football’s proposed concussion management trial is so out of touch with advances in other sports. Perhaps Ifab should come clean and rebrand the group, or at least remove the words ‘concussion’ and ‘expert’.”
Dr Magdalena Ietswaart, a cognitive neuroscientist whose research found changes to brain and memory function following heading practice, said: “Concussion is not easy to recognise so unpressured assessment of players, as often as required, is what is needed.”
In a statement, Ifab said its group “consists of medical (including neurological) and football experts, talking about concussion – hence the ‘concussion expert group’.” Of Dr Nina Feddermann, the specialist in neurology, it said she is “a highly respected and experienced neurologist/concussion expert in the sports world” who leads “the renowned Swiss Concussion Center”.