Gambling
has overtaken the demon drink as the main risk for cash-rich football players,
according to former England captain Tony Adams who battled alcoholism before
becoming a saviour for players fighting addiction.
Adams,
who founded the Sporting Chance clinic having come through his own drink hell,
told how old professionals led him to the pub after training but modern-day
stars fell for huge bets and the internet.
More
than 70 per cent of footballers, rugby players and stars from other sports who
go through Sporting Chance are in the grip of gambling, according to the
Arsenal legend who is football director for Azerbaijan side Gabala.
He
said two footballers, a rugby league player and a boxer are currently at his clinic,
founded in 2000 in Hampshire, southwest of London.
Three
football managers and several coaching staff have also joined players seeking
refuge over the past 18 months, according Sporting Chance chief executive Colin
Bland.
Sporting
Chance is recognised as a world leader in helping athletes overcome destructive
behaviour.
But
Bland said too many coaches still did not take account of mental illness when
deciding if a player was fit to compete.
"Coaches
will quite accept that I can't play because I have torn something or my knee is
bad.
"But
if you are up and walking - you might be suffering from an acute depressive
disorder or a mental illness - you are well enough to play and you get your
treatment at the end of the season."
Adams
said he had twice turned out for Arsenal when drunk. His own trail of alcoholic
chaos wrecked "six or seven" marriages of teammates and friends.
"I
dragged them around the world," recounted the winner of four English
league titles.
"When
I joined the club, the ex-pros took me down the pub. That was where we went on
a Tuesday after training - bang. But they don't tend to do that now," said
Adams.
In
his own case, a long injury layoff sucked him into alcohol dependence.
"I
got shit-faced, absolutely out of my tree, drunk alcoholically, wet the bed,
into fights, put crutches over people's heads."
He
had a 12-year battle where booze dominated his summer breaks and increasingly
"the career that I loved". Adams went to prison for dangerous driving
but even that did not stop the drink.
"The
illness of addiction has gone in different directions ... you have got the
internet now and gambling is a massive one.
"I
think 70 per cent of our clients who come through as patients are gambling
addicts. There has been a big shift away from booze to gambling."
Former
West Ham United and Stoke winger Matthew Etherington reckons he lost STG1.5
million ($A3.3 million) on greyhounds, horses and cards.
Adams's
former teammate Paul Merson has said he spent up to STG30,000 ($A66,000)
betting on a single football match in the 1990s.
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