How the FA and Alzheimer’s Society raise awareness of dementia

Ahead of the 2024/25 football season, the Football Association (FA) announced it has renewed its partnership with charity the Alzheimer’s Society for a further year.

 

This takes the corporate partnership, launched in August 2021, up to July 2025, as the two organisations look to increase awareness of dementia to help fans and footballers alike spot the early signs and seek help.

 

The partnership follows emerging concerns over the last decade around the links between footballers and possible risk of dementia when head impacts happen, such as when they head the ball.

 

Here we look at some of the research that provides the backdrop to their partnership and the work they are doing to raise awareness of dementia.

 

 

Research

 

One of the first studies to suggest a possible greater risk of dementia in professional footballers was in 2017. This studied the brains of former footballers with memory problems and found that most had signs of dementia called chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

 

All had signs of Alzheimer’s Disease. But Alzheimer’s Society points out that footballers without memory problems were not studied as part of this research.

 

Two years later a further study, led by the University of Glasgow, also found a link between professional footballers and dementia.

 

This compared the causes of death of more than 7,600 former Scottish players during the twentieth century against 230,000 people from the general population.

 

It found that former professional footballers had a three and half times higher rate of death due to neurodegenerative disease than expected.

 

Once again there are caveats to this research. It did not say why there is such a link so it does not explain why playing professional football might increase or whether heading of balls is a factor. Also, it did not look at whether amateur footballers are similarly impacted.

 

Nevertheless, its findings are compelling for those in the sport. A year after this 2019 study the England, Scotland, and Ireland football associations released guidelines advising children aged 11 and under not to be taught to head footballs in training.

 

As of summer 2024, two further studies are taking place looking at how professional footballers brains change as they get older.

 

One is funded by The Drake Foundation and will look at changes to the brains of around 300 former professional players, including their history of heading footballs and different lifestyle factors.

 

Another is being carried out by the University of East Anglia, which is using technology to test for early signs of dementia in former professional players.

 

This is the first to involve both male and female footballers. It is also the first to explore when players may start to show signs of dementia.

 

 

Awareness raising

 

Among the most eye-catching partnership activities have included the England men’s team wearing nameless shirts in the second half of the match to draw attention to memory loss in their match against Belgium in March. This was the third annual Alzheimer’s Society International event to be staged.

 

After the match the charity saw a seven-fold increase in visits to its symptoms checklist website and more than doubled its total website traffic.

 

Also, in March England players including Ivan Toney and Kyle Walker experienced “a unique sense of how it may feel to be a person living with dementia” by wearing an ‘empathy suit’.

 

This suit is made up of 13 components that inhibit motor skills, vision and hearing.

Another awareness driving campaign took place in January 2024 when the charity and the FA launched their ‘support the supporters’ campaign during matches during the FA Cup’s fourth round. This encouraged fans to seek an early diagnosis and almost doubled visits to the charity’s online symptoms checklist.

 

In 2023 through the partnership Wembley Stadium because the first national stadium to be made dementia friendly. This involved using feedback from those with dementia to improve accessibility and increase staff understanding of dementia.

 

Elsewhere, County FAs are now Alzheimer’s Society referral partners, to confidentially signpost fans and players to support around dementia. In a further move, 149 FA members of staff are trained as ‘dementia friends’ to help those living with dementia.

 

By 2024 the FA and Alzheimer’s Society’s partnership has raised more than £870,000 for dementia support through donations.

 

“Football has the power to change lives and this partnership has allowed us to reach so many new people over the last three years,” said Alzheimer’s Society Chief Executive Kate Lee.  

 

FA Chief Executive Mark Bullingham added that extending the partnership for a further year in 2024 was “testament to the significant impact we have made together”.

 

“We are incredibly proud to work so closely with a charity at the forefront of tackling the UK’s forgotten crisis. Dementia touches the lives of so many, including millions of football fans, and it is our privilege to support such an important cause.”