Passing of Nobby Stiles reinforces calls for neurological disease in football to be...

[ASFN Admin]

The passing of Nobby Stiles, who is the fourth member of England’s 1966 World Cup-winning team to die after being diagnosed with dementia, will reinforce calls for neurological disease in professional football to be investigated as an industrial illness. Stiles, who was 78, had been living with dementia since his early sixties and his family are among those who have repeatedly questioned football’s inaction in the face of mounting evidence that it has a serious problem among its former players. John Stiles, Nobby’s son, Telegraph Sport as far back as 2016 that neurological disease among former players seemed “almost to be of epidemic proportion”, while Nobby’s granddaughter, Caitlin Stiles, graduated from Newcastle University this summer after writing a law dissertation entitled: ‘The increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases in UK professional football - should football governing bodies respond?’ The Telegraph launched its campaign for research in 2016 and, last year, a study led by Dr Willie Stewart at the University of Glasgow delivered an emphatic answer. Former professional footballers were 3.5 times more likely to die of a neurological disease, including a five-fold increased risk of Alzheimer’s, a four-fold rise in motor neurone disease and a doubled risk of Parkinson’s. Football’s subsequent inaction, however, is causing increasing anger and frustration among campaigners and families of former players, especially in the face of further evidence. From the 1966 team alone, Stiles, Martin Peters, Jack Charlton and Ray Wilson have all died since 2018 after living with dementia and, at a landmark inquest in Ruthin earlier this month, the death of the former Wales international Alan Jarvis was registered as ‘industrial disease’.

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