FA Chairman, Greg Dyke, says sorry to widow

FA Chairman, Greg Dyke, has said sorry to the widow of one of the country’s great soccer players.

In 1968 Jeff Astle scored the only goal in the FA cup final against Everton thus winning the cup for West Bromwich Albion, and at the same time achieving the distinction of scoring in every round of the FA cup competition in which his club participated that season.

He represented England at full international level and has been voted as one of the greatest West Bromwich Albion players of all time.  He was an outstanding header of the much heavier leather footballs that were used in those days.

In January 2002 at the age of 59 Jeff collapsed and died, the cause of death being degenerative brain disease.  Deterioration in his mental state is said to have been observed in the last five years before his death.

Comparing Jeff Astle’s condition with brain conditions suffered by boxers, a consultant neurological pathologist told the inquest that there was evidence of brain injury consistent with repeated minor trauma, and that it was unlikely that he would have developed such trauma at so young an age if he had not headed a football repeatedly.  Indeed, he may not have developed the condition at all.  That evidence was accepted by HM Coroner, Andrew Haigh.

I had the pleasure of getting to know Jeff Astle towards the end of his playing career when he played for Weymouth in the Southern League, and I also had the honour of representing him at the Lancaster Gate headquarters of the Football Association when he successfully appealed against a caution (what is now known as a yellow card).

So I was pleased when the Football Association announced that it would set up a study into the effects of repeated heading of footballs, but over 12 years on nothing has happened.

Now FA Chairman, Greg Dyke, has apologised to Lorraine, Jeff’s widow, and offered to meet her to discuss what the FA is doing about researching football-sustained head injuries.  Mr Dyke adds in his letter that a commission has been formed to include representatives from the FA, the PFA (Professional Footballers Association) and the Premier League to consider head injuries caused in this way.

In the meantime, a 2011 United States study demonstrates that repetitive heading may set off a cascade of responses that can lead to degeneration of brain cells.

The FA’s response is well overdue.  The available evidence in this case indicates that Jeff Astle’s early death was in all likelihood due to what, to all intents and purposes, was an industrial injury.

Lorraine Astle is reported as saying that she just wants football to be safer for youngsters coming into the game.

If the FA’s belated response achieves that result, Mrs Astle will perhaps obtain some sort of closure and her late husband will have achieved even more for the game than he demonstrated during his lifetime with his very considerable footballing abilities.