Former Scotland boss Craig Brown adds to call for dementia fund

Former Scotland manager Craig Brown. Picture: SNS

Former Scotland football boss Craig Brown has added his voice to those calling for a fund to be set up to help former players who have been diagnosed with dementia.

The move comes after Dawn Astle whose father, West Bromwich Albion star Jeff, died of dementia called for a small cut of English Premier League wages to help care for sufferers.

Brown said this was something that could be looked at in Scotland after former Aberdeen and Dunfermline manager Jimmy Calderwood, 62, became the latest high-profile casualty to be hit with a diagnosis of early Alzheimer’s.

The proposal in England would see a 1 per cent levy on the wages of millionaire Premier League players and comes after three members of the 1966 World Cup winning team – Martin Peters, Nobby Stiles and Ray Wilson – had been diagnosed with the disease.

Brown said Scotland should be “taking the lead” on this issue and also paid tribute to Lisbon Lion Billy McNeill whose family confirmed he was suffering from dementia earlier this year.

He said: “I think it’s something we should be looking at up here as it’s quite a high profile list of players now and it’s becoming more prevalent in Scotland. I would have thought certainly the PFA in Scotland is very good and strong, headed up by Fraser Wishart and we don’t want to be taking a lead from England – we should be giving England a lead. The heavy ball seems to be a factor.

“I remember Billy McNeill told me a way back that he would header the ball 100 times every morning when he was training with Celtic. If you’re heading that leather thing 100 times it’s bound to upset the metabolism a bit – it was a heavy ball and it held the moisture not like the newer type of footballs.

“I think when you see a lovely guy like Billy McNeill having that problem [Alzheimer’s] then everyone rallies round because no-one’s ever had a bad word to say about Billy and here he is with his wife left as his carer.”

Brown said he was a bit shocked on hearing Calderwood had been diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s saying “he’s a young guy, he’s only 62.”

Fraser Wishart, chief executive of PFA Scotland, said: “We support the desire for further research and information, we are in the hands of experts here and they are telling us that there’s not enough evidence for them to form an opinion either way. We would certainly back any proposals for further research.”