All the work of this campaign has paid off... now we can get answers
WHEN news broke last week that I’d be leading the team looking into whether there is increased risk of dementia through playing football, the response was immediate. My phone rang off the hook, people went to our website. Everyone wanted to share their stories.
It’s astonishing to think that only four years ago when The Mail on Sunday launched the concussion campaign, we were struggling to be heard and to convince people that there may be a link between head injury and dementia.
All the work raising the profile of this important issue has paid off, and this research commissioned by the FA is truly groundbreaking. No other sport has done anything like this.
The FA and PFA have put the future of football into independent research and allowed us to assess the long-term impact of playing the game without any interference. They have no control over the course the work takes. It means that our work can be unbiased and thorough. Should we come back with evidence that might need action, the game will respond. It’s a brave position to put themselves in and shows real commitment to the welfare of players.
It’s difficult to do intensive scientific research on this issue without knowing answers to important questions such as ‘Is there a problem?’ And, if so, ‘What’s the size of that problem?’ People assume that brain injury in sport is a huge problem but work to answer these questions has still not been done.
With our study, FIELD, we hope to address this. Our research will involve looking into lifelong health in about 15,000 former footballers and comparing them to 45,000 members of the public. We’ll certainly be looking at whether people are more likely to get mental health problems if they have played football, but also what the benefits of playing football are, and how does wider health in former footballers compare to non-players.
Only then can we make informed decisions on the global risks and benefits.
The study will find out what the long-term health implications are of playing football. How are former footballers living in general? Are ex-players healthier individuals? If so, what does that healthiness look like? These are all key questions that we hope to be able to answer in around two to three years’ time.
I’m grateful to the FA and PFA for taking the subject forward. I’m also grateful to The Mail on Sunday for the concussion campaign which has brought us to the position we are in today.