A new fund to support players with dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases has been created by the Professional Footballers’ Association and the Premier League.
A fund has been in the works to support affected players and their families ever since PFA chief executive Maheta Molango met with campaigners Dawn Astle and Rachel Walden early in his tenure in 2021.
Further meetings followed with the Premier League, the Football Association and the EFL. At this point, only the PFA and the Premier League are involved in the fund, which has an initial £1million available for distribution to families.
Molango insists this should be “a football-wide responsibility” and the ultimate goal is that the fund be replaced in the longer term by a charity backed by all the four key stakeholders in English football.
The FA is involved in funding a number of research projects aimed at understanding why there is a heightened risk of neurodegenerative disease among footballers, something identified by the 2019 FIELD Study.
However, the fund is designed to tackle the immediate needs of players already living with dementia.
Molango said: “This is an important step forward in the way football provides practical support to former players who develop dementia and other neurodegenerative conditions.
“It’s an issue where, in all areas, we continue to believe there needs to be a football-wide responsibility.
“That includes providing access to financial support for former players and the families who most need it.
“The Premier League deserves credit for the proactive way in which it has approached these discussions. Obviously, we hope that other stakeholders in the game will choose to contribute to the fund going forward.
“There is much that still needs to be done, but this is a positive development which will provide help to former players and their families, and which demonstrates how football has to work together on this issue.”
Former professionals who have been members of the PFA, and their families, will be able to make applications for financial support which will be assessed by an independent, expert panel.
The PFA will proactively approach ex-players and their families it is in contact with who it believes would benefit from the support to explain to them how to make an application.
The union’s brain health unit will also act as a point of contact for former professionals and their families who come forward looking for support or advice.
Dawn Astle’s involvement has been pivotal to the creation of the fund.
Her father Jeff Astle, a former West Brom and England forward, died in 2002 aged 59 with early-onset dementia. A coroner recorded the cause of death as industrial disease, owing to the repeated heading of a ball.
She was once a vocal critic of the PFA under its former chief executive Gordon Taylor over what she perceived to be a lack of support offered to her family and others, but joined the union’s former player care department in early 2022.
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said the welfare and care of players “has always been a priority” for his organisation and added: “We feel it is important to offer our support to this newly-established brain health fund.
“The fund builds on our long-standing partnership with the PFA and strengthens our collective support for former players facing health challenges.”
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
