Lee Collins: Partner demands welfare for pro players.

[Peter Loo]

I'm sure that all of us will echo the sentiments within this tragic report.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-58439099

[Hipper]

I'm sure that all of us will echo the sentiments within this tragic report.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-58439099

With agents, clubs, the FA and PFA, is there really no support for players and ex players? Coming to the end of a football career has been going on since pro football began. They surely get far more support, or perhaps it's better to say there is far more support available, then your average person. Why do pro footballers have to have it on a plate? If someone doesn't ask for support there's not much can be done.

[Peter Loo]

Perhaps that's a question you might like to ask his wife H.

[Boss Hogg]

Enough money in the game to set some training programmes up for life after football. Lots of people have to change careers eg forces and some who have had no choice eg miners.

[steve1264b]

This is a very difficult subject.

Ideally every employer would have such support in place.

However, Hipper does have a point. Why are footballers so well looked after or why should we expect them to be so well supported?

There is no such support for anyone made redundant.

I went on a course and on that course was an ex footballer (he had played 1 season for Gillingham before injury) he revealed the PFA was paying for his course.

I very much doubt footballers receive less support than the rest of the adult population.

[GodIsADeeJay81]

What support do they need to enable them to change career?
When he started out he would've known it wouldn't last forever, he had time to think about what to do when it ended.

It wasn't like he'd suffered a sudden career ending injury.

The PFA can help, but they're not there to be career advisors for former players, that's down to the individual themselves to determine what they'd like to do next and then get help from the PFA for any re-training they may need.

Michael Johnson is now an estate agent, randomly.

It's sad that he couldn't see a life after football, meaning he felt he had to commit suicide, but there is only so much help to be given.

[Firthy]

While I sympathise with her, this is today's society. People are always looking to blame someone else or want things putting in place to prevent it happening in the future. Unfortunately, it's not always possible if the people themselves don't ask for help or in some cases don't even know they need help. Pro footballers know that one day they will retire from the game and get more help than your average person who finds themself in the same position without any warning when they are made redundant.

Unfortunately people have to take responsibility for their own lives and sometimes no amount of advice will help if people don't ask for it.

[bennitor]

As ever, some generally callous responses on here along the lines of 'oh well, he should have asked for help'. It's not always that simple.

I think football is particularly unusual in the way players are brought through it. Generally picked up at academy level, players then don't have to think about their future for fifteen or twenty years. From childhood they have everything decided for them and if they're successful that carries on until their mid 30s, then suddenly nothing.

For elite level players they will have the money to live a comfortable life but for lower league players it can be a real challenge - they don't have the money but they feel adrift having known nothing but football for twenty years. They also lose the camaraderie and support of a dressing room, managers, coaches etc. and it is easy to see how they feel so alone.

I did some work on it a number of years ago - when you actually speak to players leaving the game at lower levels, it is a lonely place - and not everyone is wired to ask for help. Add to that the fact that a lot of them may have underachieved academically (at 16, football is everything after all) then it's no surprise that some just end up feeling totally lost when they leave the game.

[Rileybobs]

While I sympathise with her, this is today's society. People are always looking to blame someone else or want things putting in place to prevent it happening in the future. Unfortunately, it's not always possible if the people themselves don't ask for help or in some cases don't even know they need help. Pro footballers know that one day they will retire from the game and get more help than your average person who finds themself in the same position without any warning when they are made redundant.

Unfortunately people have to take responsibility for their own lives and sometimes no amount of advice will help if people don't ask for it.

I suspect there would be a different attitude to someone leaving the armed forces, who also gets more help than the average person.

There’s so much money in professional football that I think questions should be asked about how much of it is used to support retiring players, particularly those whose careers have been at the lowest levels.

[fatboy47]

Footballers and soldiers are no more immune to a liking for the sauce than any other profession.

Its a bugger but nothing to see here really.

[beddie]

While I sympathise with her, this is today's society. People are always looking to blame someone else or want things putting in place to prevent it happening in the future. Unfortunately, it's not always possible if the people themselves don't ask for help or in some cases don't even know they need help. Pro footballers know that one day they will retire from the game and get more help than your average person who finds themself in the same position without any warning when they are made redundant.

Unfortunately people have to take responsibility for their own lives and sometimes no amount of advice will help if people don't ask for it.

I agree with the majority of what you say apart from the last part of your penultimate paragraph. There’s enough money in football whereby a support system type body could be set up thus ensuring every footballer nearing the end of his career or has concerns about his future is spoken to by a professional body, It should be an automatic procedure with their door always being open.

[GodIsADeeJay81]

As ever, some generally callous responses on here along the lines of 'oh well, he should have asked for help'. It's not always that simple.

I think football is particularly unusual in the way players are brought through it. Generally picked up at academy level, players then don't have to think about their future for fifteen or twenty years. From childhood they have everything decided for them and if they're successful that carries on until their mid 30s, then suddenly nothing.

For elite level players they will have the money to live a comfortable life but for lower league players it can be a real challenge - they don't have the money but they feel adrift having known nothing but football for twenty years. They also lose the camaraderie and support of a dressing room, managers, coaches etc. and it is easy to see how they feel so alone.

I did some work on it a number of years ago - when you actually speak to players leaving the game at lower levels, it is a lonely place - and not everyone is wired to ask for help. Add to that the fact that a lot of them may have underachieved academically (at 16, football is everything after all) then it's no surprise that some just end up feeling totally lost when they leave the game.

What you're saying highlights some of the good parts of the American system, where kids finish high school and college before embarking on a professional career.
The education is prioritised first and foremost.