sport news Suffering footballers must wait YEARS for dementia support

Dementia in football and other sports is still years away from being recognised as an industrial disease.

Sportsmail has seen a letter from the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC) in which they seek to manage expectations. It explains that the IIAC are aware of ‘several potentially important ongoing studies that may not produce results for several years’.

It also warns that even after the IIAC recommended that Dupuytren’s Contracture — known as ‘miner’s claw’ — be added to the list of prescribed diseases in 2014, it took until late 2019 for regulations to come into force. The letter goes on to list several other reasons why there will be a delay. They include prioritising the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, along with two issues which are ‘taking up most of the time of the Council’.

It also warns there are complications when it comes to a disease that is widespread among the general public, and that resources at the IIAC are ‘scarce’.

This comes almost two decades after Jeff Astle, the former West Bromwich Albion and England goalscorer, had his death in 2002 at the age of 59 deemed a result of his career. Several high-profile former stars, such as Bobby Charlton and Denis Law, have been diagnosed with dementia in recent years.

‘As if enough time had not elapsed already,’ said Sportsmail columnist Chris Sutton. ‘It’s sad news. Former miners can claim help from the Government for osteoarthritis in the knee because the nature of their work left them damaged later in life. I think there’s enough evidence out there to say that footballers were damaged by their work, too.’

With initial support from the PFA and the Jeff Astle Foundation, the brain health charity Head for Change, led by Dr Judith Gates, have been in regular contact with the IIAC.

Formally recognising brain disease would allow former players to claim industrial injuries disablement benefit, which can be worth up to £180 a week. The IIAC recently agreed to expand their investigation to include rugby, boxing and horseracing.

For neurodegenerative disease in sport to be waved through, the IIAC say there needs to be a ‘relative risk of more than two’. In other words, the risk of the disease needs to be at least double for those in that workplace, compared to the general population.