S69 · E32

Football's Broken Dreams

It was the summer when football almost came home. Now Panorama investigates the system that has produced some of the England team’s brightest stars. Reporter Rory Carson, himself a former professional player, discovers that for teenage footballing prodigies it’s a high-pressure, big-money game, where they can be bought and sold, leaving some feeling discarded when they don’t make the grade. Rory hears from former players and their parents about the mental health impacts of being built up as the next Premier League superstar, only for their dreams to be shattered when they are dropped. He also investigates evidence of agents breaking Football Association rules designed to protect young teenagers from being financially exploited.