On Thursday there was a debate in Parliament entitled “Football and Dementia” which was organised by Ian Blackford who is an SNP MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber which is a location I have been to in the past. He opened the session with his comment “I beg to move, That this House asks the Government to investigate the links between football and sport-related neurodegenerative disease. I am grateful to the Backbench Business Committee for granting this debate, and to the number of Members across the House who support the motion, particularly my co-sponsors of the debate, the hon. Members for Moray (Douglas Ross) and for Easington (Grahame Morris).” As it happened several other MPs took part and indeed Douglas Ross did not take part of the discussion. One of the people who did make a number of contributions was Chris Stephens who is the SNP MP for Glasgow South West. One of the comments that he made during the session was focusing on a football player who was born in 1954 who according to Wikipedia he is “After retiring as a player, he worked as a football agent and BBC football pundit before being appointed chief executive of the Scottish Football Association in 2007, a post he held until his resignation on 19 April 2010. Smith then worked as the director of football of Rangers during the 2011–12 season.” Gordon Smith was in Brighton and Hove Albion football from 1980 – 1983 when I was obtaining my BSc from the Brighton Polytechnic and I visited the football location several times. He played in Brighton and Hove for 109 events and he then went over to Manchester City from 1983 – 1985 when he played 45 times.

Here is the piece from Chris Stephens which states.

Gordon Smith, the former Rangers, Brighton and Hove Albion and Manchester City player, and former chief executive of the Scottish Football Association, had a chat with me about this issue, when he heard it was to be debated. He told me that when he signed for Rangers football club, Jock Wallace, the then manager, told him, “I have been trying to sign you, Gordon, for the last four seasons.” Gordon Smith did not know that because, at the time, the registration of a player was held by the club, and if the club chose to keep the player, they would not be told that another football club was interested in them. That was driving wages down.