A former Australian soccer star filed a “historic” class action lawsuit against the sport’s governing body over injuries linked to a concussion on Tuesday, and dozens of other former players are expected to join.
Max Rooke played 135 games for the Geelong club before retiring in 2010. He now wants compensation from the Australian Football League (AFL) for brain injuries he allegedly sustained while playing.
Australian Rules Football, which uses many of the rules of rugby but is played on a cricket pitch, is the number one sport in Australia: the championship final is usually played in front of more than 100,000 spectators in Melbourne each year.
The 41-year-old has filed a class action lawsuit in Victorian Supreme Court in Melbourne alleging he suffered “permanent life-changing injuries relating to a concussion caused by the negligence of the ‘AFL’,” his attorney Michel said Margalite. in a press release.
More than 60 former players have come forward to join the class action lawsuit, Margalit added.
These would suffer from long-term harm, including neurological disorders such as traumatic brain injury and dementia. “The injuries to this group of former AFL players are having a devastating impact on their lives and those of their loved ones,” Mr Margalit said. “Some of the players who joined this historic fundraiser were never able to keep a job after they left the AFL,” he said.
Margalit added that a similar class action lawsuit filed in the United States by former NFL football players resulted in an initial payout of more than $1 billion.
A similar lawsuit is also underway in rugby union, with 275 former players seeking compensation for brain damage, including 2003 World Champion Steve Thompson with England and former England captain Ryan Jones, Wales.