Dan Ballard’s sending off against Wolves dominated discussions around Sunderland last week, with the club deciding to appeal against his VAR red card for the now much-talked about hair pull.
However, while the club waited for the FA to predictably reject their appeal, elsewhere, a far more significant – but much less publicised – decision regarding a Sunderland defender was being made.
This decision was not held in a VAR suite but in a Court of Law.
And it was a stark reminder of how the game used to
be, with potential ramifications for how the sport might look in the future.
If, like me, you grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, the sight of players running out onto frozen snow-covered pitches, where the white lines had been cleared to allow the officials to see whether the ball had gone out of play or not, was anything but unusual. We even had orange match balls to make them visible against the snow!
If they weren’t frozen, pitches resembled a mud bath that wouldn’t have looked out of place in World War I, with leather balls that absorbed moisture and became heavier as the game wore on.
It was during that era that Sunderland signed a physically menacing centre forward from Rotherham.
Dave Watson was intended to be the focal point of Sunderland’s attack but, between Bob Stokoe and his temporary predecessor Billy Elliott, Watson’s potential as a dominant defender was identified. Alongside Richie Pitt, Watson was at the heart of the defence that brought FA Cup glory to Wearside in 1973, and he would go on to enjoy a stellar career with Manchester City and England.
Last week, away from the furore that surrounded Dan Ballard’s hair pull, Dave Watson won a quiet yet important victory.
Watson has been diagnosed with probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy (‘CTE’) and probable Alzheimer’s dementia. He attributes these to a significant number of head traumas he suffered during his professional career. Watson was refused industrial injuries benefit by the Department for Work and Pensions because they did not accept the link between his CTE/dementia and his football injuries. He appealed to the First-Tier Tribunal, but the appeal was dismissed. He then appealed to the Upper Tribunal. The Upper Tribunal found a series of legal errors in the decision of the lower court, and gave guidance on the approach the government and tribunals should take in these cases
The judgment notes that where a person relies on having suffered ‘accidents’ at work, a wide range of things can constitute accidents, and that it is relevant to consider whether the risks (for instance, of a head injury causing permanent damage) were understood at the time. The appeal was allowed on all grounds. Watson’s case will now have to be reconsidered by a lower court.
It is easy to forget the conditions in which football was played 50 or 60 years ago – the pitches, the balls, the generous interpretation of violent conduct which allowed the likes of Norman Hunter and Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris to freely ply their uncompromising trade.
It is also easy to forget that players in that era did not receive the superstar wages that allow more recent stars to retire comfortably.
If Dave Watson is successful in his claim for industrial injuries benefit, it will be another decision that the football authorities will have to take note of. The inquest into the deaths of Leeds and Scotland stalwart Gordon McQueen found that years of heading the ball contributed to his dementia, which followed a similar finding by the Coroner at the inquest into the death of West Bromwich Albion icon Jeff Astle in 2002.
But it isn’t only an issue for players of Watson’s generation. Dean Windass attributes his diagnosis of dementia in 2024 to repeatedly heading the ball.
In 2023 the FA and PFA-commissioned FOCUS study found that players who headed the ball most in training and during games were 3.53 times more likely to be at risk of cognitive impairment, and heading the ball is already being phased out in Under 11 and below football.
As Brian Clough once said “If God had wanted us to play football in the clouds, he’d have put grass up there”.
Along with Jimmy Montgomery, Dave Watson was one of my childhood heroes – the sort of bloke that you would willingly go to war alongside. He is now fighting one of the most important and consequential battles of his life, even as he endures a condition that may have been caused by the very qualities for which he is revered.
It is one in which he deserves the support of every Sunderland fan, young and old.
And perhaps the club can find a way of recognising him, in the same manner in which others have been recognised.
