Calacus Monthly Hit & Miss – The FA & Amir Khan

Every month we look at the best and worst communicators in the sports world from the last few weeks.

HIT - THE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION & THE ALZHEIMER’S SOCIETY

So much has been written in recent years about the risks of brain injury caused by head impacts in rugby and latterly by football.

A number of high profile deaths has prompted concerns about the long-term health of footballers who head the ball regularly.

Former England and West Bromwich Albion and England striker, Jeff Astle, died of dementia in 2002, aged just 59 with a coroner ruling that he was killed by his work as a footballer having scored a large number of headed goals.

Since then, a number of former footballers have been diagnosed with, or died of, dementia, and many of them have had that diagnosis linked to their careers.

Former Leeds and England defender Jack Charlton died in 2020 while Nobby Stiles died in 2020 and Ray Wilson in 2018 – all suffering from dementia. Jack’s brother, Manchester United legend Sir Bobby Charlton, is also a sufferer.

No wonder a group of former football, rugby league and rugby union players have been taking legal action claiming they suffered brain injuries playing their respective sports including relatives of Stiles.

Some research undertaken by the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, published in the Lancet Public Health journal, found that footballers are 50% more likely to develop dementia than the rest of the population.

Its research found that 8.3 per cent of outfield footballers were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, compared to 5.1 per cent of the control group.

The study compared the health records of 6,000 elite footballers and more than 56,000 non-footballers between 1924 and 2019 and suggested that outfield footballers were 50 per cent more likely to develop dementia than the rest of the population.

The data shows concerning trends, so it is no surprise that in England, the Football Association is trialling banning children under 12 from heading the ball in certain grassroots competitions and leagues. If successful, it will apply to the International Football Association Board for a law change to remove heading for under-12s altogether.

Brain injury charity Headway criticised UEFA for not allowing concussion substitutes in the Women's Champions League after Arsenal and England's Beth Mead suffered a head injury against Ajax.

Luke Griggs, Headway’s chief executive, said: “It is important that football is willing to evolve as our understanding of the long-term implications of repeated sub-concussive impacts increases.

“We know enough now to make balanced, sensible adjustments to limit exposure to head impacts.” This includes “limiting of heading practice drills for adults, and complete bans on children heading the ball as they move through key stages in their physical and neurological development,” he added.

Perhaps, then, the official charity partnership between England’s Football Association and dementia charity The Alzheimer’s Society is a natural fit.

Recent activity around the England Lionesses’ match against Australia, to raise awareness and funds for dementia research and support by encouraging fans to donate and share their memories was executed brilliantly.

An estimated 850,000 people live with dementia in the UK (the writer also lost his Mum to dementia a few years ago), which is likely to increase to above 1 million by 2025.

By using the power of sport to drive positive social change, the campaign was able to create a sense of shared purpose and belonging among fans and players alike.

Most notably, players on both the England and Australia teams played without names on a third of their shirts to highlight the fact that one in three people could forget the name of their favourite player or treasured football memory.

Different players wore the nameless shirts after half-time, to further draw attention to the confusion and memory loss often experienced by those living with dementia, before being auctioned.

Fans were encouraged to engage with the stunt using the hashtag #TheForgottenThird.

Kate Lee, Alzheimer’s Society CEO, said: “Right now, there are too many people facing dementia alone and without the right support.  With The FA’s backing and support, we can reach more people than ever before, and we can reach them sooner.

“The sport has an unrivalled ability to bring people and communities together, which is why we’re asking fans up and down the country to get behind this important cause and donate whatever they can, so no-one must face dementia alone.

“We hope by making this simple alternation with this gesture and getting both teams to show a sign of solidarity, we can put an important spotlight on just how much dementia can devastate lives.

“I hope it makes a massive impact from the stands to screens, inspiring people to donate so we can reach even more people with our life-changing support, which helps people through some of the hardest and most frightening times.”

Ahead of the game, 11-year-old Eve interviewed the Lionesses to discuss what football means to them and their experiences with dementia.

The international fixture was hosted at Brentford FC’s Gtech Community Stadium and saw the unveiling of a striking mural by sports correspondent Carrie Brown.

The large-scale art installation, designed and created by MurWalls, captured key moments of England Women’s football – with fans being encouraged to add their most unforgettable memories to the mural.

England coach Sarina Wiegman said: “Tonight was a chance for both sets of players to come together in recognition of the many people living with dementia and their families and friends who help them.

“I’m very proud to see our players again continue to use their platform to show support for important causes – I hope it inspires fans to donate and support Alzheimer’s Society’s important work.”

The social impact of the campaign, however, was significant. Over the past two seasons, the partnership has raised over £400,000, with thousands more fans, players and staff now knowing where to go to access vital dementia support.

The Alzheimer Society has created a sense of community and purpose around the cause, inspiring thousands of football fans to donate, share their stories, and engage with the issue of dementia in a meaningful way.

MISS – AMIR KHAN

Calacus had the pleasure of working with Amir Khan, who was supporting one of our clients, a few years ago.

Polite, helpful and professional, he was great with the attending media and helpful at every turn.

His boxing career speaks for itself. Khan unified world titles at super-lightweight and faced pound-for-pound stars Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and Terence Crawford during a 40-fight career featuring 34 wins and six defeats.

He has also undertaken a great deal of charity work, launching his own Foundation supporting local business in his hometown of Bolton and disasters in the Philippines and the Indian Ocean Tsunami.

But Khan’s life has also been shrouded in controversy – with his private life being a popular topic for the tabloid newspapers as well as accusations regarding possible homophobic language and an armed robbery that saw Khan lose his expensive watch in East London last year.

In what proved to be his last fight, Khan lost to Kell Brook in the sixth round of their hotly anticipated bout in Manchester in February 2023.

Soon afterwards, he announced his retirement. "It's time to hang up my gloves," Khan, who turned professional in 2005, said on Twitter.

However, with the court case ongoing after the armed robbers were caught, Khan suffered a huge blow to his reputation when the UK Anti-Doping Agency (UKAD) banned him from all sport for two years.

The statement from UKAD Chief Executive Jane Rumble read: “This case serves as a reminder that UKAD will diligently pursue Anti-Doping Rule Violations in order to protect clean sport. 

“Strict liability means Athletes are ultimately responsible for what they ingest and for the presence of any Prohibited Substances in a Sample. It is important that all Athletes and their support personnel, whatever level they are competing at, take their anti-doping responsibilities seriously. Not doing so risks damaging not only an Athlete’s career, but also undermining public confidence in clean sport.”

Khan had been informed that after his fight with Brook, samples had produced an Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) for ostarine and after a hearing and an independent tribunal, despite proving that his usage was unintentional, Khan was suspended retrospectively.

In reality, while it has an impact on his sporting integrity – albeit minimal because of the small trace of ostarine in his system – his reputation has taken an unexpected knock.

UKAD’s statement indicated that Khan was aware of the verdict in late February this year, although they waited until early April to make the news public.

Armed with that information, Khan should have had a statement prepared explaining his version of events up to and including the ban – and kept in closer contact with UKAD to ascertain when the news was being released.

His failure to do that meant that a scheduled interview on Sky News with Kay Burley was hastily cancelled – while he was already getting ready in the studio.

Without the support of PR advisers, it gave the impression that Khan was blindsided by the timing of the announcement and unprepared when it came out.

Khan had the opportunity at Sky News to calmly give his side of the story – which he could and should have mentally prepared for in the weeks after discovering the UKAD verdict, let alone in the months since his adverse sample had been discovered.

There are occasionally times when “no comment” is the best approach, although those are increasingly rare given the media’s ability to either find alternative experts or use the ‘empty chair’ tactic to add further humiliation to a story.

But if Khan had been advised and supported properly, he could have addressed the situation head-on, with confidence and a clear message which both explained what had happened and what he planned to do about it.

As it was, he was ambushed by another Sky camera crew outside the Sky studios at Millbank, appearing to want to get away and then giving a confused and half-baked explanation which did more harm than good.

There was no manager, nor a PR adviser to support him and the fact that he said that he would write a statement shows how little thought had gone into dealing with this.

During his interview, Khan said: “I never cheated. I’m a retired fighter. At the same time you can see by my performance, my performance against Kell Brook wasn’t the best, I lost the fight. If I went in and knocked Kell Brook out it’s different.

“I’ve never cheated in my life. I’m the one who wanted the testing on the fight and also the amount that was in my system could have been by shaking people’s hand.

“I don’t know what drug was in my system. I’m a retired fighter so I’ve got a two-year ban now it’s quite strange and funny that they’ve rang me, I’m already retired anyway. No comeback plans at all but I’ve never cheated and I never will, that’s not something I would do.”

Promoter Ben Shalom, whose company Boxxer was representing Khan at the time of the Brook fight, admitted that he had no idea about the doping offence or subsequent tribunal.

“I called the board [British Boxing Board of Control] today when I saw it on social media and said, ‘Do you know about this?’ and they said, ‘I only found out yesterday,'” Shalom said.

“We didn’t even know there was a process. We didn’t even know [Khan] failed a test. It’s completely insane. And it’s dangerous.

“There should be no getting out of failing a drug test. It doesn’t matter whether it’s intentional, doesn’t matter what it was. That’s it. A strict liability ban. And it needs to be governed by a world governing body not multiple different people having different opinions with different rules. It is just communication and it’s bullshit. I’m shocked.”

Khan may have had no plans to return to the ring, but he could have minimised the damage to his reputation caused by this doping offence simply by having the foresight to prepare for the inevitable media interest when the story broke.

His initial response further underlines the importance of preparation for every scenario rather than wait until bad news comes out.

Notably, later that week, Khan did a sit-down interview with Sky Sports, having clearly taken the time to do the preparatory work which should have happened way earlier.

During the interview he said: “I don't know how it got into my system, maybe shaking hands, maybe sharing a drink with somebody. It was a big shock to me.

"It's such a tiny amount that was never of any benefit at all. I don't know how it got in there but I should've maybe taken a little bit more precaution. I'm very sorry about it.

“I can honestly say that I've always been a clean fighter. I've always been the type of person who's always asked to be drug tested.

“I don't want to be remembered for something like this, that'll hurt me a lot. If people remember me for just this incident that's happened then I think it'll always upset me because I know it was never done on purpose.

“Hopefully people believe me and maybe take more precaution, especially the young and upcoming fighters can learn from me how mistakes can happen.”

Time will tell whether the label of ‘drug cheat’ is used in reference to Khan, undoing so much of the good he has done for society and the sport of boxing.

His initial shambolic response to the drugs verdict revelations underlines further the need for crisis communications preparation.

Being reactive instead of proactive sets the narrative tone which is often tough to recover from.