England’s World Cup-winning right-back George Cohen has died aged 83, his former club Fulham have announced.
The footballer played every minute of England’s World Cup-winning 1966 campaign, including the final against West Germany.
He won 37 caps for England across his footballing career, the entirety of which he spent playing for Fulham.
The club wrote on their website: “Everyone at Fulham Football Club is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of one of our greatest ever players – and gentlemen – George Cohen MBE.”
Born in Kensington, west London, in 1939, Cohen joined his local side Fulham, whose stadium, Craven Cottage, was just over a mile from his home.
Initially working as a member of the grounds staff, he signed a professional contract in 1956 and made his debut against Liverpool as a 17-year-old in March 1957.
He went on to make 459 appearances for the club, scoring six goals, before retiring at the age of 29 due to a serious knee injury.
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In the run-up to the 1966 World Cup, Cohen was battling with Blackpool’s Jimmy Armfield, at the time England’s captain, for a starting spot.
But an injury to Armfield in the lead-up to the competition allowed Cohen to cement his place in Sir Alf Ramsey’s side.
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Playing in his favoured right-back role, Cohen provided key overlapping runs in an England side which played narrow through the midfield and up to the two forwards.
He started at right-back in the 1966 final against West Germany at Wembley, helping the Three Lions to a 4-2 extra-time victory – England’s only World Cup win.
He played seven more times for England, making his final appearance in November 1967 in a win against Northern Ireland.
An attacking right-back with the pace and stamina to get up and down the pitch, Cohen was hailed as “the best full-back I ever played against” by the supremely talented Manchester United winger George Best.
He was awarded an MBE in 2000 alongside Roger Hunt, Alan Ball, Ray Wilson and Nobby Stiles, after a campaign to honour the England stars who had not initially received awards for their 1966 heroics.
Cohen’s death means Sir Geoff Hurst and Sir Bobby Charlton are now the only two of England’s 1966 World Cup-winning starting XI still living, alongside squad players George Eastham, Terry Paine and Ian Callaghan.
In 2016, a statue was erected outside Fulham’s Craven Cottage stadium to honour Cohen to make the 50th anniversary of England’s World Cup win.
He finished his career as Fulham’s fourth-highest appearance-maker, after Johnny Haynes, Eddie Lowe and Les Barrett.
Speaking at the time, Cohen said: “I mean, to think that they had made a statue; I find it absolutely wonderful that they even thought I was worthy of it.
“Especially as it was alongside Johnny Haynes, the greatest name in Fulham’s history.
“To be alongside him, it was rather unbelievable. It was great to think that not only the Club, but the supporters had wanted to put a statue of me there.”
In later life, Cohen, who was awarded the Freedom of Hammersmith and Fulham for his World Cup heroics, campaigned for research into cancer and dementia.
He was a father-of-two who was married to his wife, Daphne, for more than 60 years.
Paying tribute to Cohen, his club wrote: “He is, quite simply, Fulham royalty.
“All of our thoughts are with Daphne, his beloved wife of more than 60 years, sons Anthony and Andrew, his grandchildren and extended family, as well as George’s many, many friends.”
There is a lot at stake this week for Sophie Blake, a 52-year-old mother to a young adult, who was diagnosed with stage four cancer in May 2023.
As MPs vote on whether to change the law to allow assisted dying, Sophie tells Sky News of the day her life changed.
“One night I woke up and as I turned I felt a sensation of something in my breast actually move, and it was deep,” she says, speaking from her home in Brighton.
“Something fluidy, a very odd sensation. I woke up and made a doctor’s appointment.”
Sophie underwent an ultrasound followed by a biopsy before she was taken to a room in the clinic and offered water.
“They said, ‘a hundred percent, we believe you have breast cancer’.”
But it was the phone call with her mother that made it feel real.
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“My mum had been waiting at home. She phoned me and said ‘How is it darling?’ and I said ‘I’ve got breast cancer,’ and it was just that moment of having to say it out loud for the first time and that’s when that part of my life suddenly changed.”
Sophie says terminal cancers can leave patients dreading the thought of suffering at the end of their lives.
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“What I don’t want to be is in pain,” she says. “If I am facing an earlier death than I wanted then I want to be able to take control at the end.”
Assisted dying, she believes, gives her control: “It’s an insurance policy to have that there.”
Disability rights advocate Lucy Webster warns that for people like Sophie to have that choice, others could face pressure to die.
“All around the world, if you look at places where the bill has been introduced, they’ve been broadened and broadened and broadened,” she tells Sky News.
Lucy is referring to countries like Canada and Netherlands, where eligibility for assisted deaths have widened since laws allowing it were first passed.
Lucy, who is a wheelchair user and requires a lot of care, says society still sees disabled people as burdens which places them at particular risk.
“I don’t know a single disabled person who has not at some point had a stranger come up to us and say, ‘if I were you, I’d kill myself’,” she says.
The assisted dying bill, she says, reinforces the view that disabled lives aren’t worth living.
“I’ve definitely had doctors and healthcare professionals assume that my quality of life is inherently worse than other people’s. That’s a horrible assumption to be faced with when [for example] you’ve just gone to get antibiotics for a chest infection. There are some really deep-seated medical views on disability that are wrong.”
Under the plans, a person would need to be terminally ill and in the final six months of their life, and would have to take the fatal drugs themselves.
Among the safeguards are that two independent doctors must confirm a patient is eligible for assisted dying and that a High Court judge must give their approval. But the bill does not make clear if that is a rubber-stamping exercise or if judges will have to investigate cases including risks of coercion.
Julian Hughes, honorary professor at Bristol Medical School, says there’s a very big question about whether courts have the room to take on such a task.
“At the moment in the family division I understand there are 19 judges and they supply 19,000 hours of court hearing in a year, but you’d have to have an extra 34,000,” he explains.
“We shouldn’t fool ourselves and think that there wouldn’t be some families who would be interested in getting the inheritance rather than spending the inheritance on care for their elderly family members. We could quickly become a society in which suicide becomes normalised.”
Young people will lose their benefits if they refuse to take up work and training opportunities, a minister has said ahead of announcing measures to cut the welfare bill.
Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, told Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that “conditions” will be attached to new skills opportunities the government intends to create.
With a record number of young people currently unemployed, Labour promised in its manifesto a “youth guarantee” for 18-21 year olds to have access to training, an apprenticeship, or support to find work.
“If people repeatedly refuse to take up the training work responsibilities, there will be sanctions on their benefits,” Ms Kendall said.
“The reason why we believe this so strongly is that we believe in our responsibility to provide those new opportunities which is what we will do. We will transform those opportunities, but young people will be required to take them up.”
The Labour government has said it will stick to a commitment under the former Tory administration to reduce the welfare bill by £3bn over five years.
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Ms Kendall said her party will bring in its “own reforms” to achieve that target, though did not elaborate further.
The Conservatives had planned to change work capability rules to tighten eligibility, so around 400,000 more people signed off sick long-term would be assessed as needing to prepare for work by 2028/29 to deliver the savings.
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Asked whether these people would ultimately be denied their current benefits under Labour’s plans, Ms Kendall told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I’m saying we will bring forward our own reforms. You wouldn’t expect me to announce this on your programme.
“But my objective is that disabled people should have the same chances and rights to work as everybody else.”
The latest official forecasts published by the government show the number of people claiming incapacity benefits is expected to climb from around 2.5 million in 2019 to 4.2 million in 2029.
Last year there were just over three million claimants.
Ms Kendall will launch proposals on Tuesday designed to “get Britain working” amid concerns about the soaring unemployment rate.
The white paper is expected to include the placement of work coaches in mental health clinics and a “youth guarantee” aimed at ensuring those aged 18-21 are working or studying.
The UK remains the only G7 country that has higher levels of economic inactivity now than before the pandemic.
Ms Kendall said the reasons are “complex” and include the fact that the UK is an older and sicker nation.
Asked whether she believes “normal feelings” are being “over-medicalised”, she said that while some people may be “self-diagnosing” themselves with mental health issues it is a “genuine problem”.
“There’s not one simple thing. You know, the last government said people were too bluesy to work.
“I mean, I don’t know who they were speaking to. There is a genuine problem with mental health in this country.”
Ms Kendall’s language was softer than Sir Keir Starmer, who this weekend promised a crackdown on “criminals” who “game the system” .
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, he said: “Make no mistake, we will get to grips with the bulging benefits bill blighting our society.”
A man is fighting for his life after a stabbing on Westminster Bridge, police have said.
Officers were called to the scene at around 10.45am on Sunday to reports of a fight and found a man with a stab injury. He was taken to hospital in critical condition.
Three people have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and another has been arrested on suspicion of affray.
Two of those arrested were taken to hospital with minor facial injuries, the Met Police said.
It is understood the incident is not being treated as terror-related.
The road remains closed, with the police investigation ongoing.