'Sub-standard care risks footballers' health'

Many players rely on physiotherapy following injuries

The health of footballers could be at risk because club doctors and physiotherapists are poorly qualified for the job and appointed through the "old boy network", say researchers.

A study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that more than half of England's professional football clubs entrust the health of their players to unchartered physiotherapists who are not qualified to work in the NHS.

It also reveals that many of the club doctors "inherit" their clubs and most are not specially trained in sports medicine.

Researchers from the University of Leicester's Centre for research into sport and society, said many professional players are not registered with a doctor outside the club.

I am horrified that many clubs who invest huge amounts of money in players, are still failing to ensure that they receive proper medical care

Pen Robinson

"Players were actively discouraged from using a general practitioner outside the club because it was feared that an outside general practitioner may too easily agree to their having time off when sick, thus depleting the club's limited squad of players," said the researchers.

Report author Dr Martin Roderick called for a complete overhaul of the appointments system, with more openness. He also called for better qualifications from applicants.

'Poor employment practice'

"Almost all aspects of the processes of appointment and remunerating club doctors and physiotherapists need careful re-examination; currently these processes constitute a catalogue of poor employment practice," he said.

Pen Robinson, director of professional affairs with the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP), said they had been working closely with the Football Association.

She said they believed all physiotherapists working in the Premiership must now be chartered.

"The CSP welcomes this report and supports the call for careful re-examination of the appointment system for club physiotherapists.

"I am horrified that many clubs, who invest huge amounts of money in players, are still failing to ensure that they receive proper medical care," she said.

The study, which is partly funded by the Professional Footballers Association, surveyed 58 club doctors and found that 80% of them were GPs with little specialist knowledge in sports medicine.

Only two of the doctors interviewed had any experience of working at another club and only eight had worked in any type of sport.

Posts rarely advertised

Researchers found that posts were hardly ever advertised - out of 55 posts investigated only four were publicly advertised and only one of these was in a medical journal.

They also found that most of the club doctors received no or little pay for their work and did it for the love of the club.

One doctor said he got £5,200 a year - compared to the £25,000 British Medical Association recommended rate, but researchers said this was a short term economy.

"Paying a very modest fee to a local general practitioner, who has no experience of sports medicine but who happens to be a fan of the club and who is recruited on the basis of personal or family contact, may be a cheap and easy way of appointing a club doctor but it has little else to commend it and it is unlikely to be in the best long term interests of the club or the players," said the report.