Ernie Moss
As one of the great football tournaments, Euro
2016, fills our television screens, a campaign is under way for the
sport to do more to research its link with dementia. And quite rightly
so.
Former England and West Bromwich Albion striker Jeff Astle, a
Midlands hero for scoring an FA Cup Final winner in the 1960s and a
member of the 1970 World Cup squad, passed away 14 years ago. An inquest
verdict was that he died from an industrial disease caused by damage to
his brain from playing football.
It is said that heading the
old-style heavy leather balls, as well as persistent heading and
collisions, is putting players at risk of future problems with
dementia-type conditions.
Closer to home, our own Ernie Moss — Chesterfield’s
leading scorer of all time and a former Mansfield Town favourite —was
diagnosed with dementia three years ago and a special fundraising match
was held just a few weeks ago to raise money for him.
Chesterfield legends and celebrities celebrated the great man at a
terrific afternoon at the Proact Stadium — but questions remain for his
family, as for so many others, as to how the disease started.
At
the inquest into Astle’s death it was agreed that the Football
Association and Professional Footballers’ Association would look into
the risks of repeated heading of footballs. Their study was never
published.
Why? What has the game got to hide? Was the Astle case
and a few others that have emerged since the tip of the iceberg or just
in line with statistics in life generally?
Well, for me, it could be the tip of that iceberg.
Geoff Hurst, the 1966 World Cup Final hero with that marvellous
hat-trick in the 4-2 extra-time win over West Germany, was in the East
Midlands recently reminiscing about that memorable day 30 years ago.
England
were crowned world champions for the only time in their history. The
match has been replayed on TV recently and several documentaries have
been aired.
It is fascinating to go down memory lane and see how much football has changed in the intervening 50 years.
Many
of the players were not household names at the time, they could walk
down the streets without necessarily being recognised and they didn’t
get the millions of pounds that any England team winning a World Cup
would be sure to receive now.
But what has happened to Hurst’s teammates since?
Remarkably
four of the eight surviving players from that great team are said to be
suffering memory loss issues — Martin Peters, Nobby Stiles and Ray
Wilson have been reported to have Alzheimer’s. Jack Charlton is said to
have memory loss.
Researchers say looking at other teams from that
era produces similar results — a far greater incidence of dementia
among 11 men than you would get elsewhere.
For example, they claim
at least four of Tottenham’s double-winning team of 1960-61 were struck
down with the disease before the age of 80 — Danny Blanchflower, Dave
Mackay, Peter Baker and Ron Henry.
Five of the Aston Villa team that won the FA Cup in 1957 ended up suffering with dementia.
Doctors say one incidence out of 11 might be expected, but not four, five or six.
At
last the Football Association, the Professional Footballers Association
and the Professional Game Board have promised an investigation and have
asked FIFA to take a look.
About time!
The Jeff Astle
Foundation, a charity set up in memory of the former WBA striker, says
it knows of 300 former players who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
We
owe it to the boys of 66 as well as all the other players from that era
to look after them as well as to try to prevent future problems for
others if there is found to be a widespread problem.
It could be
that the memory-loss issues have only been caused by the old-style balls
and that there will be no similar problems going forward for today’s
players.
It could be that there is no link at all.
It could be health and safety gone mad.
But we need answers so that players can be better informed of any future risks – if there are any.
Ernie Moss 
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