The number of former rugby and football players who are taking legal action against the games' governing bodies, claiming they suffered brain injuries playing sport, has recently grown to 378.
The Claims
Last year, more than 200 former rugby players launched a legal action against the games' governing bodies (the Welsh Rugby Union, the Rugby Football Union and World Rugby) alleging that they had acted negligently in failing to take adequate action to protect players from permanent injury caused by repetitive concussive and sub-concussive blows.
Earlier this year, rugby union authorities in England and Wales faced their second major lawsuit on the same grounds after a group of more than 55 former amateur players began a legal action against them.
Both class action lawsuits are being organised by the law firm Rylands Garth and legal experts have said that the claims against the organisations could exceed £300m. The former rugby players in both lawsuits have been diagnosed with a range a neurological impairments such as early onset dementia, which they attribute to the effects of the concussive and sub-concussive blows they suffered while playing the sport.
The claimants have accused governing bodies of several failures, including the failure to:
- Take adequate steps to inform, educate or warn the claimants about the risks of permanent brain damage.
- Reduce the amount of contact allowed in training.
- Reduce the number of matches per season.
- Ensure that a properly qualified individual was in charge of the treatment of head injuries within the sport.
Rylands Garth are also representing over 30 former footballers with brain damage. They are suing football's governing bodies, The Football Associations of England and Wales (FA) and The International Football Association Board, for failing to take reasonable action to reduce blows to the head. Areas in which the governing bodies were allegedly negligent include failing to reduce deliberate heading in matches and training, failure to allow an independent doctor to assess players who suffer suspected concussion and allowing players to return to training or matches when it is unsafe to do so.
An ongoing issue
The issue of how to best deal with concussion and reduce the risk of brain injuries, is something that the games' governing bodies have been grappling with for some time.
Last year, a dementia study jointly funded by the FA and FIFA was launched, in order to investigate ways to reduce risk of the disease in former footballers. The study was launched following research by Dr Willie Stewart, which showed that former footballers were about three and a half times more likely to die of neurodegenerative brain disease than the general population. Furthermore, only a month ago the Premier League expressed its disappointment that a trial of temporary concussion substitutes, to help reduce the risk of players exacerbating their brain injury, had been rejected by The International Football Association Board.
Changes for the future
The numerous ongoing lawsuits and legal battles in contact sports shed light on the need for change and serve as a stark reminder that player safety and protection must always be a top priority. Whilst it remains to be seen what further steps governing bodies will take, these lawsuits and the increased attention and scrutiny on player safety will continue to push for improvements in contact sports to ensure the wellbeing of all athletes involved.
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