Chapter Eleven - better protection for players

 

This Chapter deals with player welfare.  It was not part of Ms. Crouch’s original Terms of Reference, but a great deal of evidence was offered on the subject.

That evidence suggested that there are huge gaps in after care for players retiring from the game, and for the overwhelming majority of young players who enter the Academy system but do not succeed in reaching a professional standard.

 

Ms Crouch recommended that there needed to be a significant investment in :

 

•   safeguarding and educational support to ex Academy players

 

•   mental health care and related support for retiring players

 

•   making it harder for unregulated Academies to offer sub-standard schemes for young players

 

 

How this valuable work is to be funded is still to be determined but could be supported by the proposed EPL transfer levy referred to in Chapter Nine.

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