Search: 'mental illness'

Paul Joyce reflects on the tragic death of German goalkeeper Robert Enke and examines football's poor record when it comes to helping players with mental illness

Unlike many of today's players, people felt like they genuinely knew Robert Enke. An ambassador for children's heart charities and anti-fur campaigns, the German national goalkeeper embodied a new generation who rejected the combative machismo of Oliver Kahn and Jens Lehmann in favour of an unspectacular integrity. Yet it turned out that no one knew Robert Enke at all, not even his Hannover 96 team-mates. "You learn over time how to trick the media," he once said, tellingly. "You talk a lot, but say nothing."

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Attending Tottenham's match at Portsmouth last year led to a traumatic experience  for Ian Trow, who has just been cleared of abusive chanting charges. Adam Powley takes up the case

The new football season had barely got underway before a handful of incidents involving supporters stirred old prejudices about fans being trouble makers. But while fighting at West Ham and trouble surrounding Emmanuel Adebayor’s goal celebration for Manchester City against Arsenal sparked predictable alarm, the experience of one supporter shows what can happen when innocent bystanders are tarnished by association.

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Steve Wilson reports on how the race to become West Asian representative on FIFA’s executive committee turned personal

Asian football may lag behind its European and South American counterparts, but a recent election to fill the position of West Asian representative to FIFA’s executive committee proved they are a match for anyone when it comes to political back biting and mudslinging. The acrimonious campaign plumbed such depths, with allegations of mental illness, vote buying and personal vendettas, that it became too unpalatable even for Sepp Blatter, who was forced to play the unlikely role of moral arbiter. 

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As Paul Gascoigne ploughs through the worst days of his life, he is totally and utterly alone. But then he always was, reflects Taylor Parkes

“Cries for help” don’t come any more blatant than cancelling a steak on room service but asking them to send up the knife, then attempting to drown yourself in front of the policemen who have broken down your hotel-room door, and sure enough he has been swamped in goodwill. The fact is, most of it is worse than useless (“Gareth Southgate has called on Paul Gascoigne’s friends to save the fallen star in his darkest hour,” reports the Daily Mail, as if that meant anything). While the back pages weep and fret, or offer worthless diagnoses, the news boys dig for gold: Gazza was begging in street, blared the Sun. “He tried to buy a Ferrari then his trousers fell down.” (In case we wondered, the article confirmed that “he was wearing no underwear”.) This reaction, all heat and no light, is as miserably predictable as the breakdown itself.

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We may never know the truth about what preceded Tottenham's vital clash with West Ham. But, as Luke Chapman reports, it left players and fans alike sick to the stomach in more ways than one

Is the Premier League run for the benefit of all their clubs or just a select few? Incensed Spurs fans will argue the latter, after what happened in their final game of the season. 

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