Coroner rules Nobby Stiles death should be subject to inquest

Stiles’s son John has previously said that football had “killed” his father.

John Stiles is head of the Football Families for Justice (FFJ) group which is calling on the football authorities to do more to support ex-players.

His father was forced to sell his winner’s medals to fund his dementia care.

He is among dozens of former footballers and their families suing the Football Association, the Football Association of Wales and the English Football League over claims they were “negligent and in breach of their duty of care” to the former players.

Lawyers for the former players and their families have previously said football bodies knew or should have known that repeatedly heading a ball in training and during matches was likely to cause brain injuries, and that the risks were known for decades.

In March this year lawyers for The Football Association told the High Court it has “not been established by science” that heading a ball or “occasional” concussion can lead to permanent brain damage.

In January an inquest into the death Gordon McQueen, 70, an ex-Scotland, Man Utd and Leeds United defender, found that heading the ball was “likely” to have contributed to a brain injury which was a factor in his death.

McQueen was also diagnosed with CTE.

McQueen’s TV presenter daughter Hayley McQueen said England’s 1966 World Cup winning team had now been “pretty much wiped out” by neurodegenerative disease.

The FA co-funded with the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) a 2019 study that found footballers were three-and-a-half times more likely to die of neurodegenerative disease than age-matched members of the general population.

The FA is phasing out all heading in youth football up to under-11s by 2026.