Football doesn’t want to think it’s a killer, Dawn Astle tells MPs

  • Footballer’s daughter delivers excoriating testimony
  • Parliamentary committee told sport failed to protect players

Campaigners for action against neuro-degenerative disease in football have delivered excoriating testimony against the game’s authorities, with one telling a parliamentary committee that “football doesn’t want to think it can be a killer, but I know it can because it’s on my dad’s death certificate.”

Dawn Astle, whose father Jeff died from dementia which coroners declared an “industrial disease” because of his years as a professional footballer, was one of several witnesses to appear at a DCMS select committee hearing into concussion in sport. She called current funding for research into the effects of heading the ball “a drop in the ocean” and demanded faster action in response to studies that already exist.

Related: Football grapples slowly with brain injury, 19 years on from Jeff Astle | Andy Bull

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Category: Dementia | Mental Health