Former Football Association chairman David Bernstein has urged the FA to take responsibility for young footballers released by academies and implement regulation ensuring clubs have to offer support and counselling.
Following a series of interviews in i detailing allegations of racism, bullying and threatening behaviour, an increasing number of former academy footballers have spoken out about the anxiety and depression they suffered as a result of their treatment and the subsequent lack of support they received after being let go. In some cases players have been left feeling suicidal, and experienced anxiety and depression for years afterwards.
Max Noble, a former Fulham academy player and Wales Under-21 international who detailed his own harrowing experiences, called for an aftercare system to be put in place to protect released footballers. And Bernstein, 77, who was head of the FA from 2011 to 2013, believes that it is time formal mechanisms were established by the governing body.
“It’s inevitable young people going to these clubs, particularly these big glamorous clubs, when things don’t work out for them they’re bound to be hit hard. It is traumatic for them. I’ve got a lot of sympathy,” Bernstein told i.
“You can’t look after them for life, but in that immediate traumatic period after they’ve been told they’re not going to make it there should be as much help as there can be. A young person who has been taken out of school and has made that commitment, if it doesn’t work out the club has a responsibility.”
Bernstein, who was also chairman of Manchester City from 1998 to 2003, does not believe it should fall on the FA to run its own support programme – they are, after all, facing cuts to staff, services and resources due to the devastating financial impact of Covid-19 – but insists they have a duty, as the leaders of English football, to ensure all clubs provide wellbeing support.
“As far as practically possible there should be protection and help and counselling for youngsters who haven’t made it because it’s a very traumatic moment for them,” he said. “That’s probably been their lives for most of their life they can remember. It’s incredibly difficult. There’s going to be hurt. As far as possible clubs have a responsibility to help as best they can.
“I think the detailed, operational side is down to the clubs. I think the FA, as with all these major matters, should be ensuring the general processes and regulations regarding this are suitable. That’s their job.”
There are around 12,000 young footballers in the academy system at any one time but fewer than one per cent ever make it. Hundreds are released each year and many suffer as a consequence. A recent survey of more than 100 young players released by professional clubs last year [2020] found that 88 per cent felt anxious or depressed afterwards and three-quarters said they were not given enough support by their club.
Bernstein says the prospect of making it as a professional footballer can be “very seductive and dangerous” to young players and their parents. “Maybe that should be up in lights when they start all this: that 99 per cent don’t make it,” he added.
Bernstein believes the FA is too slow to act when major issues develop. “One of the problems football has – and you’re seeing it with the dementia issue, with the historical sex abuse issue – is that it is very slow to react to these things,” he said. “It is generally governed by vested interests and often narrow vested interests. And the FA hasn’t been strong enough to grasp these issues until they become public scandals.”
Bernstein is part of the Our Beautiful Game campaign – alongside former Manchester United defender Gary Neville and other high-profile public figures – who are calling for the government to create an independent regulator of English football.
“If we had an independent regulator who was not governed by vested interests and who brought independence into all these things, this issue and other issues as well, you’ve got a much better chance of things being dealt with before they become national scandals.”
He added: “Otherwise these things do not get dealt with the speed, seriousness or emphasis they should.”
An FA spokesman said: “The FA works very closely with the professional leagues, who have academy regulations in place, and the PFA to ensure that support and aftercare is provided to their academy players when they leave clubs.”
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from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3fjmjiu
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