Bristol Rovers legend taking legal action against FA over brain condition says he has just years to live
In Bristol, Ian Alexander is a footballing legend.
Recognised in the shops – remembered as a stalwart for Rovers, winning the third-tier title and reaching a Wembley final for lower-league clubs in 1990.
Ian Alexander was part of the Bristol Rovers side that won promotion in 1990
He was never nationally famous, but like so many in the game, he was playing for the love of it rather than becoming a millionaire.
But the memories are fading and muddled for the 62-year-old. Not just forgetting those he played with or against. But, at times, unable to even remember to use a fork to eat.
Suspected chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is blamed – a brain condition linked to repeated blows to the head that can only be definitely diagnosed when the brain is analysed after death.
“We are football addicts, footballers,” Alexander told Sky News.
“I don’t know about the damage it does, and it’s the damage from collisions, headers and stuff you don’t know about when you play football.”
Now the hope is the High Court uncovers how much football should be blamed.
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Alexander is among more than 30 former players and their families taking legal action against the sport’s authorities, including the Football Association.
How much were they aware going back decades of the long-term damage caused by repeated blows to the head, concussions and repetitive heading, particularly in training?
Finding out the answer is dragging on. A year after the first hearing, they were back in court today in central London, to hear of more delays, more obstacles being put in their way by the sport’s governing body.
Martin Porter KC, representing the FA, claimed there was a lack of clear direction in the case to narrow down what is being sought from a “shed loads of documents” held by such a “venerable organisation”.
“We are in the middle of a football season, it is a very difficult time, a busy time,” Mr Porter said. “We would be putting a lot of demands on our clients to uncover information.”
That prompted an irritated response from Shaman Kapoor, the barrister representing the former players, pointing out the FA executives are not the ones playing.
We did hear the initial hint of a defence by the FA, among procedural legal arguments, highlighting health benefits of playing.
“Nobody can play sport without some risk of injury,” Mr Porter said. “Are we to discourage the playing of sport?”
But central to the case will be whether anything can be found in the FA archives going back to the 1950s showing, for example, if there was scientific evidence to show heading should have been reduced or removed from the game entirely.
The parties are due back in court in June. But Mr Kapoor became increasingly exacerbated and told the court: “The idea has been to ambush the progress of this litigation”.
For Alexander and wife Janet, the slow pace of the case is infuriating.
Alexander said ‘get to the bottom of it and let us get on with the rest of our life’
“Why don’t you just get the case going? Get to the bottom of it and let us get on with the rest of our life,” he said.
It is the feeling of justice, not fortunes, they seek, but enough compensation for treatment and to enjoy the life he has left.
“The professor said from your age and your symptoms and stuff, he reckons I’ve got between two and six years,” Alexander said.
“So I’ve got the back of my head. That’s what I’ve got left. And that was a year ago.” Anxiety attacks make even going to football now a struggle.
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Nothing extravagant is planned, just hoping for a caravan strip around his homeland in Scotland. And more trips to neurological experts to discover just what is wrong with his brain and whether football caused it.
A tattoo inked on his left arm reads: “The mind may not remember, but the heart will never forget.”
The hope is football does not forget, with former Leeds player John Stiles leading the lobbying of the government for the football’s looming independent regulator to have powers over the long-term impact of head injuries.
The concern is of a widespread brain disease epidemic in the game and not enough being done to help the victims.
“Would you go back and do it again? My answer would be yes,” Alexander said. “I wouldn’t have changed anything in my life.
“Football was my life. I had great times.”
He just wishes it could have been safer. But whether football authorities neglected his, and other players’ health, is a matter a judge could end up determining.
The family of a father shot dead in a suspected case of mistaken identity in north London have said he “deserves justice” as they appealed for information.
Mahad Abdi Mohamed, 27, died from a gunshot wound to the head in hospital after he was hit with bullets fired from a stolen Mitsubishi Outlander, which was later found burnt out.
Detectives believe those responsible for his murder had set out to hurt someone else in a “pre-meditated and targeted attack” in Waverley Road, Tottenham, at 8.45pm on Thursday 20 March.
Mr Abdi Mohamed’s younger sister, Amal Abdi Mohamed, 23, said he was a “loving father” to his five-year-old son, who “looked up to him like a superhero”, and was planning to get married in the summer.
Mahad Abdi Mohamed with his sister, Amal Abdi Mohamed. Pic: Met Police
“He was taken away from us through gun violence,” she said.
“A bullet didn’t just take his life, it tore through our family, through our heart, and it’s truly shocking, it’s devastating, and it’s so senseless, because this type of violence should never be normal.
“It should never be something a family ever has to expect, prepare for, or live with.”
Mr Abdi’s 26-year-old friend, with whom he had been breaking his Ramadan fast, was also shot in the leg and was treated in hospital for a wound police said was not life-changing.
The Metropolitan Police arrested four men on suspicion of murder, who have been released on bail pending further investigations.
Detectives are appealing for witnesses who saw a silver Mitsubishi Outlander in the area, which was found burnt out in Runcorn Close, the following morning.
A Mitsubishi was found burnt out the following day. Pic: Met Police
“This tragic event and Mahad’s death, has had a profound impact on the community and all those who loved him. Someone out there knows what happened. And that person, or people, must come forward,” said Detective Chief Inspector Rebecca Woodsford.
“Regardless of how small you think your information is, please share it with us. It could be the missing link we need to secure justice for Mahad and his family.”
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‘To stay silent is to be complicit’
Many of Mr Abdi Mohamed’s family members were in tears as they visited the scene of his murder as part of the appeal for information.
“My sweet Mahad was the kind of person who could light up a room without even trying,” said his sister.
“His laugh was so loud, and it still echoes in our memories.”
Ms Abdi Mohamed said her brother “was funny, he was honest, and overall he was just a good man” but “wasn’t perfect”.
She said he had “made mistakes but turned his life around” working at Waterloo Station, and part-time at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Royal Ascot as a security guard.
Mr Abdi Mohamed with his mother, Zahra Ali Seef. Pic: Met Police
“How do you look at a child who adored him day and night, and tell them that he’s gone and you don’t have the answers why? That boy will have to grow up with no dad,” she said.
“If you think you may know anything or have seen anything – you may think it doesn’t matter, but it might be the key to giving us an answer, and it might be the thing that finally lets our family take a breath.
“To stay silent is to be complicit.
“To stay silent is to let a grieving mother suffer in confusion. To stay silent is to let a little boy grow up not knowing what happened to his father.
“If you know something and you haven’t come forward, please think about that. Think about a family that cannot begin to heal because the truth is still hiding in the shadows. My brother deserves better. He deserves justice.”
UK
Post Office Capture scandal: Sir Alan Bates calls for those responsible for wrongful convictions to be ‘brought to account’
Sir Alan Bates has called for those responsible for the wrongful convictions of sub postmasters in the Capture IT scandal to be “brought to account”.
It comes after Sky News unearthed a report showing Post Office lawyers knew of faults in the software nearly three decades ago.
The documents, found in a garage by a retired computer expert, describe the Capture system as “an accident waiting to happen”.
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Post Office: The lost ‘Capture’ files
Sir Alan said the Sky News investigation showed “yet another failure of government oversight; another failure of the Post Office board to ensure [the] Post Office recruited senior people competent of bringing in IT systems” and management that was “out of touch with what was going on within its organisation”.
The unearthed Capture report was commissioned by the defence team for sub postmistress Patricia Owen and served on the Post Office in 1998 at her trial.
It described the software as “quite capable of producing absurd gibberish” and concluded “reasonable doubt” existed as to “whether any criminal offence” had taken place.
Ms Owen was found guilty of stealing from her branch and given a suspended prison sentence.
She died in 2003 and her family had always believed the computer expert, who was due to give evidence on the report, “never turned up”.
Patricia Owen (right) was convicted in 1998 of stealing from her post office branch. She died in 2003
Adrian Montagu reached out after seeing a Sky News report earlier this year and said he was actually stood down by the defending barrister with “no reason given”.
The barrister said he had no recollection of the case.
Victims and their lawyers hope the newly found “damning” expert report, which may never have been seen by a jury, could help overturn Capture convictions.
Read more: Post Office scandal redress must not only be fair – it must be fast
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What is the Capture scandal?
‘These people have to be brought to account’
Sir Alan, the leading campaigner for victims of the Horizon Post Office scandal, said while “no programme is bug free, why [was the] Post Office allowed to transfer the financial risk from these bugs on to a third party ie the sub postmaster, and why did its lawyers continue with prosecutions seemingly knowing of these system bugs?”
He continued: “Whether it was incompetence or corporate malice, these people have to be brought to account for their actions, be it for Capture or Horizon.”
More than 100 victims have come forward
More than 100 victims, including those who were not convicted but who were affected by the faulty software, have so far come forward.
Capture was used in 2,500 branches between 1992 and 1999, just before Horizon was introduced – which saw hundreds wrongfully convicted.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the body responsible for investigating potential miscarriages of justice, is currently looking at a number of Capture convictions.
A CCRC spokesperson told Sky News: “We have received applications regarding 29 convictions which pre-date Horizon.
25 of these applications are being actively investigated by case review managers, and two more recent applications are in the preparatory stage and will be assigned to case review managers before the end of June.
“We have issued notices under s.17 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 to Post Office Ltd requiring them to produce all material relating to the applications received.
“To date, POL have provided some material in relation to 17 of the cases and confirmed that they hold no material in relation to another 5. The CCRC is awaiting a response from POL in relation to 6 cases.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Business and Trade said: “Postmasters negatively affected by Capture endured immeasurable suffering. We continue to listen to those who have been sharing their stories on the Capture system, and have taken their thoughts on board when designing the Capture Redress Scheme.”
Sir Keir Starmer could end up allowing Donald Trump to use British bases to launch strikes on Iran, Harriet Harman has said.
Speaking to Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Baroness Harman said this was despite the prime minister being part of a generation “shaped” by opposition to the Iraq War.
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Baroness Harman was solicitor general when Sir Tony Blair decided to take Britain to war in Iraq alongside the United States in 2003.
She said the decisions made by Sir Tony would be “burning bright” in Sir Keir‘s mind.
Tony Blair’s decision to go to war in Iraq will be ‘burning bright’ in the PM’s mind, Baroness Harman said. Pic: PA
“He’s part of the political generation of the Labour Party that grew up, which was shaped by its opposition to what Tony Blair was doing in relation to Iraq,” Baroness Harman said.
“So it would be a massive change for him.”
Asked if the UK could end up giving permission for US aircraft to use British military bases on Cyprus and Diego Garcia, but not go any further than that, Baroness Harman said: “Exactly”.
Soldiers guard the security gate of RAF Akrotiri, a British military base in Cyprus. File pic: Reuters
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Sky News reported on Thursday that Attorney General Richard Hermer has raised questions over whether Israel’s actions in Iran are lawful, potentially limiting what support he believes the UK could offer the US.
Baroness Harman said that for Sir Keir, the “rules-based international order is the most important thing”.
“If the attorney general says that the government can’t do something because it’s illegal, it can’t do it. So he’s in a very crucial position,” she added.
Harriet Harman (R) with Beth Rigby
But Baroness Harman said it would be difficult for Sir Keir to say “thank you for the trade deal” to Mr Trump and then deny the president use of the airbases.
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