UEFA has "commissioned a research project that will examine the links between dementia and playing football," according to the BBC. Tentative research published earlier this week "suggested repeated headers during a player's career may be linked to long-term brain damage." The FA said that it will "look at the area more closely, but is yet to announce its own study." UEFA said that the project, which will begin on Friday, "aims to help establish the risk posed to young players during matches and training sessions." One Premier League club "will be involved in the study." UEFA's project "follows similar initiatives in other sports." A UK RugbyHealth study is "already examining the long-term health effects of playing rugby, including the effects of suffering frequent concussion" (BBC, 2/16). In London, Wilson & Rumsby reported the football authorities "have promised a series of new studies into the link between dementia and playing football" after being accused of "negligence" for past "failure to carry out research." The new UEFA investigation "will count the number of times children head the ball in real-life scenarios," with the data collected being used during further research into the effects on the brain of repeated impacts. More than 1,000 children will be filmed across two age ranges, 8-12 and 14-16, with "the number of headers broken down into categories, such as those that are intentional and those where a player is struck by the ball" (TELEGRAPH, 2/15).
PFA DEFENDS RESPONSE: In London, David Conn reported the Professional Footballers' Association "defended its response to the growing number of former players now suffering from dementia," after criticism that the union, clubs and FA are "not doing enough to help them." PFA Deputy CEO John Bramhall said that when the union is "made aware of a former player in need," it tries to provide support "wherever we can." The FA and PFA, in collaboration with both the Premier and Football Leagues, "have now jointly committed to funding new research into the issue," which will inform whether safety measures "should be taken for footballers now." That will "inevitably take time, while the number of players suffering is growing and said by some experts to be disproportionately high" compared with the incidence of dementia in the general population (GUARDIAN, 2/15).
ST. JOHN SPEAKS OUT: In London, Ian Herbert reported former Liverpool player Ian St. John said that his attempts to persuade the PFA to commission research "examining possible links between dementia and football failed" because the union told him, "Women get it too." St. John: "It’s true that women our age suffer from dementia too, but in the same numbers as men in our industry? I’m not talking about men in our country in general who get Alzheimer’s. I’m talking about the percentage of our little group of professional footballers from the 1960s. I believe this is an occupational injury, a health condition caused by our job as footballers" (INDEPENDENT, 2/15).
'WHATEVER WILL HELP': The PA reported World Cup winner George Cohen "is willing to donate his brain to science to aid research into dementia in ex-footballers." Cohen and former ManU midfielder Pat Crerand "have both agreed to have their brains examined after death to aid further research." He said, "Whatever will help, I mean why not? It's no use to me anymore at that stage" (PA, 2/16).
