PFA tackles sensitive issue of mental health among footballers
The Footballers' Guidebook will be handed to every player in England's top four divisions next season
A copy of 'The Footballers' Guidebook - Life as a professional footballer and how to handle it', will be handed to every player in the top four divisions next season.
It is considered to be one of football's last taboos, an issue that is not understood and is dismissed far too readily in the machismo-filled dressing room, where weaknesses of any sort tend to be ridiculed. Professional players are not supposed to suffer from panic, anxiety, depression or any sort of mental-health problem. They are regarded as titans among men.
Yet the reality is that footballers display the same vulnerabilities as other young people and under the intense spotlight of the modern game it is natural and inevitable that some of them will feel overwhelmed. The suicide in 2009 of the Hannover and Germany goalkeeper Robert Enke, who had been depressed since the death of his two-year-old daughter, Lara, from a rare heart condition, was an extreme example but it raised the issue of mental health in football and the authorities in England have now acted.
At the beginning of next season players in the four divisions will be issued with The Footballers' Guidebook, which looks at the stressful situations that professionals face and suggests ways to handle them.
The concept was devised by the Professional Footballers' Association, in conjunction with the Football Association, and it has been brought to life not only by the author Susannah Strong but by Paul Trevillion, the legendary comic artist behind the Observer's You Are The Ref, whose strips within the 36-page booklet highlight various scenarios, from the depression that an injury lay-off can cause to the incomprehension and anger of retirement. Trevillion's sketches reinforce the overall tone of the work, helping to make a potentially heavy subject-matter accessible.
"Talking about mental-health problems has traditionally been one of sport's great taboos," Clarke Carlisle, the Burnley defender and PFA chairman, says. "When the boxer Frank Bruno was sectioned under the Mental Health Act, the press ran the headline 'Bonkers Bruno locked up' and, given this attitude, it is unsurprisingly very rare for sportsmen and sportswomen to 'come out' about mental ill health voluntarily.
"Many players may not actually recognise what it is or know how to seek help. I think this guidebook is groundbreaking for players and it takes the first steps towards talking about mental health in professional football."
The stigma that the issue has within the game is reflected by how few players have admitted to having a problem. Those who have gone public over depression include Paul Gascoigne, Andy Cole, Neil Lennon and Stan Collymore. Each is quoted in the guidebook. In some cases of mental ill health, release is sought through drink, drugs, sex or gambling, which can further hasten the individual's downfall.
"The attitude is so often 'pull yourself together'," Gordon Taylor, the PFA's chief executive, says. "It's like in the film, The King's Speech, where George VI's father has no understanding of the problems that he's had. When Stan Collymore sought specialist treatment for his depression, Aston Villa wanted to sack him.
"A football dressing room is a bit like being in a barrack room in the services ; it's about not showing mental weakness. Players have to put on a show but it's the ducks on the water; they might look calm on the surface but, underneath, they are paddling furiously.
"We are trying to change things and create an atmosphere of solidarity ... not to make players with these problems the object of ridicule but to appreciate their qualities and to want to hold them together for the sake of the team."
Mental-health problems affect one in six of the adult population at any one time, including professional footballers, and depression alone affects up to 50%, as well as every family at some stage. The guidebook outlines the factors that can lead to mental distress and places them in situations that will be familiar to players. One of the most stressful, for example, is contract-renewal time. Not every professional is on a long-term, multimillion-pound deal.
"For players in the lower leagues one-year contracts are commonplace and this results in annual negotiations, which can be unsettling," says Simone Pound, the PFA's equality executive who has overseen the production of the guidebook. "This is such a big issue and one of the five sections of the book is devoted to it."
The overriding messages are the need to seek help, immediately and without fear, if any set of symptoms sounds familiar and to recognise that mental health is just as important as physical health.
"We hear little about the lows players feel when unfit to play, the worry and anxiety that not being selected may cause them, or the depression and emptiness many of them face on retirement," Gary Lewin, the England physiotherapist, says. "A number of players have needed help but not known it and that's why this guidebook is so welcome."
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