- The three worlds of English football – and why you don’t hear about them
- Football, the soap opera, the myths, and Arsenal’s remarkable progress
By Tony Attwood
In a recent piece, I wrote about the three worlds of football, and how the third of these is centred on the issue of bullying, which I suggest is much more widespread within football than is acknowledged by the media (which by and large always ignores the issue).
My view is a lot of people in football know about the widespread bullying and many have experienced it, but football as a whole closes its doors to anyone who mentions the issue. In my view, widespread bullying is there, but the media conspires not to talk about it.
This is especially the case in relation to the way some clubs treat some young players – even though there is now a growing number of parents who are more than willing to give testimony to the way in which their sons have been treated by clubs.
So why do clubs do it?
Football is a tough physical game, so the issue of facing physical pressed comes into play in the sense that young players are told to “man up”. It is also a fact that bullying is a part of English society; one can see it in schools, and one can see it in some workplaces and on the football pitch.
And we must note that bullying itself is not of itself a crime in England, although persistent harassment or intimidation is a criminal offence, and it is this sort of behaviour that is sometimes reported in relation to the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.
Indeed, some three years ago, the BBC (surely one of the most authoritative publishers of information in the world) published a report which stated that “Nearly 10% of footballers in the Premier League and English Football League have suffered bullying.”
Now since there are around 500 players in the Premier League that gives us around 125 players currently playing in the League who have been bullied.
At this point, however, we do have to be clear that bullying is not a crime in itself in the UK, but there are many forms of bullying which themselves involve criminal acts. In relation to football training, both persistent harassment and intimidation are criminal offences. And just to take the issue beyond the training ground, cyberbullying (which can evolve from incidents on the training ground) is also a crime under various laws, such as the Malicious Communications Act 1988 and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.
Now the Professional Footballers’ Association has taken up the 10% issue and it should be added that they also found that almost 5% of footballers had had suicidal thoughts.
So to be clear, in the beautiful game, which we pay good money to watch and support our clubs, it is quite likely that at least one of those players in every match has had suicidal thoughts.
Indeed, it is not surprising that the Professional Footballers Association’s director of player wellbeing Dr Michael Bennett commented on seeing this data that, “These are stark figures that illustrate how serious these issues are in the game.”
But the issue goes much wider than a small number of players. For a total of 79 out of 843 male players in the Premier League and EFL who were surveyed two seasons ago stated that they had been bullied at some point in their professional life as a footballer.
Now that, of course, does not mean that these players are all being bullied all the time – but the fact is that they should not be bullied at all. Bullying is not only repugnant and anti-social behaviour, it is illegal in many cases, as can be seen from the fact that 40 of these players said they had experienced thoughts about taking their own life in the previous three months, according to data gathered by the PFA. 189 of the players – more than one-fifth – had experienced severe anxiety. That is an extraordinary number and not one that I have seen replicated in any other profession or industry.
Now of course, bullying comes in many forms – we might think of some very forceful managers screaming at players as a form of bullying, but it can also come from players against players. But whatever form it takes, the clubs have a legal duty to stop it. And we should particularly note that the figures above relate to professional players – trainee players appear to be even more likely to be subject to bullying from club staff, according to incidental figures, although we don’t have detailed data on this.
There is also a particular issue relating to the transfer windows, which the media report with such glee. Untold has exposed the fact that around 97% of rumoured transfers in each window never happen, and yes, we have used this figure to poke fun at the media who run such invented stories each window. But we should also have noted (and I hope that we will note from now on) that when a player’s name appears on such a list, he can be isolated from the squad of the club for whom he currently plays. This is one of the main forms of bullying that players report.
The notion that players have the same right as all of us to feel protected and safe at work, free from being pushed into playing when they are injured or not fit, or forced to move to another club even when they have a contract that allows them to say, is something that seems to have vanished from some clubs.
Yet as the PFA report said, “any bullying will have a lasting impact on an individual’s mental health.”
Why the football authorities do not feel able to stand up to bullies in English football, I don’t know, but from the evidence I am presented with regularly, it does seem they aren’t. Why the media tend to shy away from this issue, likewise, I don’t know, but they do.
The problem is that we are talking here about the rights and protections of individuals, which are granted to them in law, yet which seem to be overridden by some football clubs that are run by incredibly rich people. Of course, many clubs always do the right thing by their players… what concerns me are those that don’t.
