David Beckham has backed a campaign to improve care for former players affected by neurodegenerative disease by applying political pressure to the football authorities.
The former England captain has given his support to the Football Families for Justice (FFJ) campaign, which is now working with the Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and the Mayor of the Liverpool City Region Steve Rotheram on efforts to give football’s independent regulator powers to force the game’s authorities to take “decisive action” on neurodegenerative disease among ex-players.
Beckham said in a video address played at a campaign meeting in Manchester: “We need the football family to come together and allocate resources to help address the tragedy of these devastating diseases.
“Let’s ensure that victims and their families are treated with kindness, respect and best in class support.”
FFJ is spearheaded by John Stiles, the son of England World Cup winner Nobby Stiles who died in 2020.
A postmortem examination of the former Manchester United midfielder’s brain found he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive neurodegenerative disease associated with repeated blows to the head.
FFJ wants the football authorities to be compelled to develop a care and support scheme for players who develop dementia or other neurodegenerative conditions linked to their careers, and a requirement that the scheme must be agreed with past and present players and their families.
Stiles described the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) as “morally bankrupt” and criticised efforts made so far to tackle this issue and described the Football Brain Health Fund, set up with an initial £1million by the PFA and the Premier League in 2023, as a PR exercise.
“Football is so wealthy they could sort this out tomorrow, but we’re nowhere near getting that. I am so glad these gentlemen (Burnham and Rotheram) are going to take it onto another level,” Stiles said at a meeting in central Manchester.
“This is football’s problem, football should be paying for it. Not the NHS, not the taxpayer.
“We want a properly financed care fund that players know, if they get ill, they will be cared for.
Seriously I am ok was delighted to find out I had a brain 🕺😀⚽️👍 just hope other families get the help what they want for the people they have lost 🙏
— Dean Windass (@DWindass10) January 10, 2025
“(Former Hull striker) Dean Windass is 55. He went for a scan and was told he has level two dementia – he can’t be on his own.”
Windass responded to a wave of supportive social media posts about his diagnosis by posting on X: “Seriously I am ok was delighted to find out I had a brain. Just hope other families get the help what they want for the people they have lost.”
Burnham, who worked with the victims of the Hillsborough disaster in their campaign for justice, said: “We do have something of a track record in standing up to things that are wrong in the game.
“I want to see if we can bring that learning and get a greater degree of justice for the people who have built the game into what it is today.”
