The family of Gordon McQueen yesterday questioned why the FA ‘fought’ them during an inquest into the former Scotland international’s death, which has found repeated heading of the ball was a contributory factor.
McQueen’s daughter Hayley, a Sky Sports broadcaster, felt confronted by the FA legal team’s questioning of her, and request for medical information about her father, during one of the pre-inquest hearings.
This led to the family eventually having legal representation for the inquest, which found McQueen’s death aged 70 in June 2023 was caused by pneumonia, vascular dementia and the brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
North Yorkshire senior coroner Jon Heath further ruled: ‘It is likely that repetitive head impacts, sustained by heading the ball while playing football, contributed to the CTE.’
Former Leeds and Manchester United defender McQueen’s decline started soon after he turned 60.
After the coroner gave his verdict, Ms McQueen’s sister Anna Forbes said: ‘The fact the FA tried to fight this is quite surprising. I think they are scared and not sure what the best approach is. Now there is more evidence (of a link between heading and brain injury) they have to do more.’
Gordon McQueen’s daughters Anna Forbes and Hayley McQueen hit out at the ‘scared FA’
Their former footballer father’s death in 2023 has seen his family fight to understand more about the role that CTE had via a coroner’s inquest
Forbes said the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) had given her family no help, despite their pleas. ‘I emailed the PFA begging for help but the email wasn’t answered,’ she said. ‘They sent me on a wild goose chase. The PFA gave us no support. No support whatsoever.’
Sister Hayley said: ‘The Premier League are giving (the PFA) money and they have a fund in place but from my understanding from personal contacts, they are definitely not doing enough.’
The FA would challenge the suggestion they ‘fought’ the case. They did not have a KC at the inquest itself, where no questions were asked of the family by the governing body. But the McQueens did feel it was an adversarial approach.
The lawyers they appointed, Slater and Gordon, are the same firm being used by the family of former Middlesbrough player Bill Gates. The FA claimed it was not in the public interest for a Durham coroner to investigate if heading the ball had contributed to the death of Gates. The coroner rejected the FA’s legal argument in that case, and a date for Gates’ inquest will now be set.
The findings in McQueen’s case could pave the way for families to receive financial support, through the designation of CTE as an industrial disease.
The coroner ruled that repetitive head impacts sustained by headers during McQueen’s playing career ‘likely’ contributed to his CTE
Hayley McQueen said: ‘It should have been a turning point many years ago when we learned the same thing with Jeff Astle and not much has happened between that time and now.
‘Hopefully my dad’s legacy will not just be what he gave football on the pitch, but what we can learn from this and making sure this really horrible problem isn’t a problem for future generations.’
The FA said in a statement: ‘While any association between heading a football and later life brain health outcomes remains an area of ongoing research, we continue to take a leading role in improving the safety of our game.’
The PFA said: ‘There is an ongoing need for a collective response to ensure former players affected by neurodegenerative diseases, and their families, are properly recognised and supported.’
