Andy Burnham and football legends challenge Labour on dementia crisis

Telegraph

08-05-2025

Andy Burnham has called for compensation for victims of football's dementia crisis.
The Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester wants the Government to back an amendment to the Football Governance Bill and establish a compensation scheme for former players with dementia.
Mr Burnham accused the Football Association (FA) and the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) of showing inadequate leadership on the issue.
Ex-players with neurodegenerative diseases and their families have received only very limited financial help from the football industry.
The amendment is currently being drafted by campaigners and Chris Evans, the Labour MP for Caerphilly, is seeking to build a groundswell of support in his party.
Last year, Chris Nicholl, the former Aston Villa defender, died on the same weekend as Stan Bowles, the Queens Park Rangers legend. Both men had suffered from dementia for several years.
Mr Burnham told The Telegraph: 'They gave everything to the game and it's not been there for them, and obviously the union specifically falls within that issue. The scale of it has shocked me, to be honest.
'We shouldn't be looking to the Government, we should be looking to the game, it should have shown leadership, but it hasn't unfortunately.'
The Telegraph launched its Tackle Football's Dementia Crisis campaign in 2016, prompting a major study that found former professionals were five times more likely to die of Alzheimer's than the general population.
Mr Burnham moderated a recent event in Parliament that was attended by England legends Sir Geoff Hurst and Kevin Keegan and which heard testimony from affected families.
Asked about the changes he wanted to see, Mr Burnham said: 'The Bill needs to put all of the right prods in place to make sure football gets its house in order.
'It is for the game to sort out but when it comes to something like dementia, this Bill has to create that back power, to say if you don't, someone else can require it.
'At the moment the cost is fully falling on public services. To the extent that families are getting any support, it's more likely to be the NHS or councils and often then it won't be what they fully need, because we know how overstretched services are. '
Mr Burnham said that while football should be 'like a family', it had failed to behave as such and needed to be held to higher standards.
He added: 'The game is often not there, and the leadership has often not been there, and therefore the national game needs to be held to higher standards.
'And that's what the Football Governance Bill, I think, will in the end do. It's still about saying 'football, heal thyself', that's still the message, but it just will mean in future there is power behind it.
'We love football, we love everything about it – just so often it falls short when it comes to issues like this.'
A bespoke compensation scheme is also being backed by Steve Rotheram, the Labour Mayor of Liverpool who has joined forces with Mr Burnham to campaign on the issue.
Mr Rotheram has spoken about his mother's experiences with dementia, while Mr Burnham's father is currently living with a form of the disease.
Calling on football bosses to cover the cost of a support scheme, Mr Rotheram declared it was time for the sport to 'put its house in order' and deliver real change on the issue.
'Labour is the party of social justice or it's nothing, and this is about ensuring that justice is done,' he said.
'[People] might think it's about very rich footballers whose families have sort of hit a bit of a hard time, because these people are going through this terrible period.'
Mr Rotherham added: 'It's not very rich footballers… This is having a detrimental impact on their families, many of whom have to sell the house, the medals and everything, the family jewels, to provide care to their loved ones.'
Mr Rotheram compared former players with dementia and their families to people who receive compensation payments for industrial illnesses such as asbestos.
'We're not saying that everybody will need support,' he said. 'What we're saying is that for many people, this is their last opportunity to try and get the support that they need to give them some quality of life.'
An FA spokesman said: 'We continue to take a leading role in reviewing and improving the safety of our game. This includes investing in and supporting multiple projects in order to gain a greater understanding of this area through objective, robust and thorough research.'
The spokesman added: 'We have already taken many proactive steps to review and address potential risk factors which may be associated with football whilst ongoing research continues in this area including liaising with the international governing bodies.'
In 2023, the Football Brain Health Fund (FBHF) was set up with the backing of the Premier League and the PFA.
The fund provides financial support to former players and their families affected by dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases on a case-by-case basis.
The PFA was contacted for comment.