SOME PREMIERSHIP PLAYERS ARE being treated for a double
addiction to gambling and pornography. There is growing evidence
that the lifestyle of the modern-day wealthy footballer is
unhealthy, unmanageable and out of control. Too much money and
insufficient life skills to use their free time constructively
are being blamed by experts and players.
This latest trend is revealed by Peter Kay, the chief executive of
the Sporting Chance Clinic, established in Hampshire by Tony Adams,
the former Arsenal defender and a reformed alcoholic, five years
ago, in a special programme for BBC Radio 5 Live this evening. Kay
has overseen the treatment of dozens of high-profile players with
alcohol and gambling problems, but the addition of porn will cause
huge concern to the FA and the Professional Footballers
Association, which fund and support Sporting Chance.
Its very unusual for a Premier League player not to have a
laptop, Kay said. These young men often lead very solitary lives,
especially when theyre sent to their hotel rooms from 8 until 8
the next morning before a match.
What weve found is that gambling and porn are integrally linked.
A player turns on his laptop and accesses an online gambling site.
We deal with people where gambling has become a compulsion and a
mental obsession. They might lose money, turn off the laptop and
vow never to do it again. But five minutes later they have rebooted
it and they go to their credit limit . . . £17,000, £20,000,
£25,000.
It is at this point when internet pornography is seen as a welcome
release. Kay said: They feel low. They dont go to another
gambling site but to something else. If you had the choice of Kiss
My Whip In Sweden or Saving Private Ryan, theres a good chance
youd choose the porn site. It then leads to going to more risky
material. Next thing you know it is 4 or 5 in the morning. Youre
in no fit state to play football.
And one well travelled Premiership striker, who has spent time at
Sporting Chance because of his porn addiction, told me: When I had
my problem a couple of years ago, I was earning £20,000 a week.
With so much free time I would get through a lot of money.
With laptops, you can get hooked on anything. It careers out of
control. I was like a kid in a sweet shop. Laptops in hotel rooms
are a bad thing. Youre in that room for one reason to relax. If
you have an addictive personality, computers dont allow you to do
that.
The feeling of release from masturbation triggers a similar
chemical reaction in the brain to the buzz received from drugs,
alcohol and gambling. Kay said: If you use porn in that way once
then its not unusual, nor is it a problem, but when its 14, 15,
16 times a day then it becomes a problem. Its not long before
players minds are off football.
Kay, known as Chef by his clients after spending years working in
top London hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants, works from two
properties tucked away in a wooded hideaway at Forest Mere Country
Club near Liphook. Four players at a time can use the main cottage,
which is functional rather than luxurious. And one reformed
alcoholic, Clarke Carlisle, who plays for Watford, said that Kay
and his team saved his life.
Two or three years ago I had gambling debts approaching six
figures, I had almost lost my job at Queens Park Rangers and had a
daughter I didnt see much of, Carlisle said. I was on the sauce
24/7. My whole life was hanging by a thread.
He was given the Sporting Chance phone number by his manager at the
time, Ian Holloway, and has been one of the clinics many
successes.
An addiction to alcohol usually means that there is a secondary
problem. In Carlisles case it was not porn, it was internet
gambling. I was losing thousands, he said. Its not reality. You
click a button and your moneys gone. These lads are locked in
their hotel rooms before a match for hours on end with nothing to
do. Its a terrible cycle. If you lose money then you have to make
yourself feel better. I needed to train in the morning, so I could
go out and drink again.
Kay believes that education is the key, giving young players as
much information as possible about using their time properly and
organising their lives. The player with the porn addiction said:
It must be drilled into players by their clubs that off the pitch
they need to use their spare time well. It all stems from how much
they get paid. If you lose a grand gambling or on porn sites what
does it matter? If they dont listen to advice then thats their
prerogative.
Carlisle added: Clubs need to groom their players and make sure
they use all that free time constructively. They get taken from
their home environment at a very young age and suddenly become a
role model for the nations youngsters. How do they play that role
when theyre youngsters themselves? While Kays attempts to alert
Premiership clubs to potential problems with their players have
been generally well received by some, others are not so
helpful.
I wrote to one club offering them the chance for us to visit them
and chat to their players. The manager wrote back saying that none
of his squad had a problem, Kay said. Little did he know that at
the time we were treating two of his players.
