this is bbc news. the headlines: in an unprecedented statement, iran's supreme leader has said there will be no war with the us. but the pentagon insists the threat level has been raised because of what it describes as an escalation in iranian activities. earlier, contradicting the american line, a senior british officer played down the risk from fighters, backed by iran, in iraq or syria. in sri lanka, a second overnight nationwide curfew has just ended. authorities want to put a stop to violent attacks on muslim—owned homes and shops in areas north of the capital colombo. they're thought to be reprisals for the easter bombings that killed more than 250 people. sudan's military rulers and protest leaders have agreed on a three year transition period to ensure civilian rule. there were violent protests in the capital khartoum which left four people dead and dozens injured. sudan has been ruled by the council since president omar al—bashir was toppled last month.

now on bbc news, as part of mental health awareness week, stephen sackur speaks to former arsenal and england footballer tony adams on hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i am at stephen sackur. as children, many people dreamed of being a professional footballer, a star of the world's most popular game with adulation and riches on tap. for a tiny few, the dream comes true — but then reality bites. professional sport is a brutal business that can chew up young lives. my my guest is tony adams, former arsenal and england put paula,

who fought his own battles with addiction and mental illness and went on to help other top players do the same. is elite sport is honest about the vulnerability of its stars? tony adams, welcome to hardtalk. rated to be here. i want to begin by taking about yourself as a kid, obsessed with football. i want to talk to you about, not the physical attributes that major successful, but the mental side of you as a kid that gave you the strength to make it in foot all. well, to be honest with you, it was my first escape. i didn't really deal with my thoughts and feelings as a kid. it was my firstjob of choice, foot all. i

didn't have to deal with any of the, any of this stuff at school that normal kids go through. and i had panic attacks in the classroom and i a lwa ys panic attacks in the classroom and i always remember the book going round the class and sitting there going... i couldn't verbalise it at that stage. you didn't want to read? i was just frightened to death. because i am in such a mess i said really instead of really and everybody laughed at me. in that pain. normal kids seem to deal with it. but i couldn't. it felt very uncomfortable and i to the football pitch. interesting. so you are not a happy kid in many ways and football and the football pitch was where you could find happiness, contentment, leave your troubles. correct. there was another situation with a couple of girls, about 14 15, highlighting where i was at that point in my life. i rememberi

where i was at that point in my life. i remember i was doing 100 headers on my head because they don't have to think and feel then, when you are doing 100 headers. she went past and said i want to go out with you and i remember putting the ball down and we walked around the block. she kissed me on the corner and then said i don't want to go out with you no more. but what i did, i picked the ball back up and away i went again. football was the thing that i away too. in reality, i didn't face anything as a kid. all my thoughts and feelings, we won't a family that disgusted at dinner. your dad was a roof. he was a tough quy your dad was a roof. he was a tough guy who did a top physicaljob. he was of that generation. and my mum, she cooked for him. and they were together because he didn't knock about. in the east end of london the old woman was getting a hiding, that typist. it was the situation. and he didn't do that. mum went hallelujah,

he has got the job. didn't do that. mum went hallelujah, he has got thejob. he is ok. but thoughts and feelings were never discussed. in my panic attack at school, they are not going to talk to me about that. what i did was put it in to me about that. what i did was put itina to me about that. what i did was put it in a box and barrier it as deep asi it in a box and barrier it as deep as i could. i am just it in a box and barrier it as deep as i could. i amjust thinking it in a box and barrier it as deep as i could. i am just thinking about the arc of your life and we will get to the football in a minute, but we know you have, more than most professional sportspeople, you have been very reflective about your upbringing, your background, everything that builds you up as a person that was going on in your head, not just your person that was going on in your head, notjust your physical prowess. i just head, notjust your physical prowess. ijust wonder head, notjust your physical prowess. i just wonder whether you can relate to something we heard in the studio from an australian writer recently, a guy called tim winton, who was writing about what he calls toxic masculinity. he said this to us" toxic masculinity. he said this to us" boys and men lead impoverished lives. they have such diminished access to language to express their strong feelings." because we all have strong feelings but when your boy they take a licence to express them. can you relate to that? no, exactly. them. can you relate to that? no,

exa ctly. h e them. can you relate to that? no, exactly. he is articulate. in my simple terms i had the inability to speak to people to tell them how it was. it is all about thoughts and feelings for me. i was in an environment where it was a weakness if you showed any signs of, say, i feel a bit vulnerable today, i'm not so feel a bit vulnerable today, i'm not so good today. in a football dressing room... you simply cannot do that. you have a person waiting in the wings with the same set of skills as you waiting to take your job. just imagine have another interview down the road, outside the studio going, right, if you make a mess of this interview he is in and you are out. the pressure, there are certain pressures in all industries, but those are the ones where football, for instance, i agree with the guy, masculinity, you know, the kind of fight, fight, fight are never given, these kind of tools, don't show weakness. it is you or them, isn't it? that you work on a 17—year—old, making your debut

arsenal. you proceeded to play for two decades to play for the team you from childhood. a new played for england for 60 times. you're at the top of the tree. for much of that you were, frankly, thinking your way through life. in such a chaotic state. you ended up doing things that humiliated you come you ended up that humiliated you come you ended up in prison because you drink while driving. you were a mess. my drinking career and football career with side—by—side the first time i picked it up. i drank for effect. i never liked the taste. which is the insanity. if i drank brandy i would be sick straight up so i used to put it in the guinness to keep it down. i tried to be a good drinker, but i wasn't. i was a complete mess, like you said. at the start, i was man, 17,18, you said. at the start, i was man, 17, 18, 19, 20, football was enough for me. it was just weekends. it was

a progressive illness for me. saturday night into sunday. all of a sudden midweek, it creeps up over the years. certainly if i was injured or holidays, you know, off periods, i was absolutely smashed, because they didn't have put all i was either drunk or i was playing football. how could you continue at the elite level of foot all doing that your body? there were a lot of heavy drinkers in the game which masked quite a lot of my behaviour. there was a period where we won the league and 91 and, weirdly, it coincided, i did not win another league title until i sobered up. so from 91 until 96 when i sobered up i could get up for sub— games, we won the european cup winners cup, but could not do it through the season. it was having a physiological effect with me that was slowly driving me down alongside my football. pretty much the year and 96 took that away from. you have been pretty open

about over many years. he wrote a memoir when you left the game. you have since written another book about sobering up and how life has taken about sobering up and how life has ta ken nuisance would about sobering up and how life has taken nuisance would fall. but as times have changed, people have become more concerned about things like, this phrase, duty of care. and ijust wonder, when like, this phrase, duty of care. and i just wonder, when you like, this phrase, duty of care. and ijust wonder, when you reflect now, looking back at the way you were, the way arsenal football club was, the way arsenal football club was, the way arsenal football club was, the way england management work, how could it be that coaches, managers, fellow professionals who were alongside you could allow this to continue? because they knew what you we re continue? because they knew what you were doing, many of them, but they just turn a blind eye. well, not all of them. there were some that, when you've got the illness you are either in denial, go away, i haven't got a problem, either in denial, go away, i haven't gota problem, minimisation, i don't like him, orjustification. you drink if you had a wife like me or a life like me. there's the kind of three issues. and other people didn't understand. i didn't

understand, so why would they understand? and there was a big, huge drinking culture in the game at that point as well. so a lot of it was normalised and accepted and it was normalised and accepted and it was pushed towards certain coaches and staff, actually camaraderie, and the non— addict, some of my teammates, they bonded over it. i just stayed there for three days after. no question, you are not the only addict in the game. you are not the only addict in professional football or indeed other elite sports as well. but you did something that very few others have done. you confronted it. you are very honest about it. you wrote your own account of it. but, perhaps more importantly, he decided to do something else to help, to intervene, to help others who were ina similar intervene, to help others who were in a similar place yourself. you set up in a similar place yourself. you set up this foundation, sporting chance. just tell me what you think is different about you that allowed you to co nfro nt different about you that allowed you to confront it. there's a really interesting question. you're good at this. there is a guy outside ready

to get myjob so i have to. this. there is a guy outside ready to get myjob so i have tolj this. there is a guy outside ready to get my job so i have to. i don't know, i don't know why me. but thank god it was. alcohol give me a good hiding. this addiction took me down and destroyed my life. it took everything away from me. it is a great remover. and it destroyed me mentally until i got to the place where we talk about in recovery, the jumping off point. i didn't know how to kill myself, but i didn't know how to live. i was at that kind of point. and, thank the lord, ifound a therapist and started going to therapy, i went to aa. during this period of coming to, the first two yea rs of period of coming to, the first two years of my period of coming to, the first two yea rs of my recovery, period of coming to, the first two years of my recovery, i was getting phone calls up and down the land from footballers and stuff saying i'm ina from footballers and stuff saying i'm in a real mess, i'm in a mess, help, kind of stuff. and i'm not a psychotherapist, i'm not a counsellor, i'm not an expert in the field stop i've just got my set of

experiences. so i was sharing them with them and i wasn't helping, i don't think. and i have got a set way that i got well, through therapy, through 1—to—1 therapy, three going to aa meetings. and i kind of sad, first of all i was going to set up a foundation and put money into it and then pay for people to go through the other residential clinics out there. then i thought myself, actually, is this working? do i have to treat it holistically? the physical side of the illness, do i need to address that? in my clinic does. we have 12 small therapies that run alongside... you have helped hundreds. hundreds of thousands of professional sports people. we did 900 last year in 2018. and when you look at the younger footballers and others who are reaching out to sporting chance, in their late teams and early 20s, is it still drink which is haunting them or is it

other addictions? no, it has changed. it has changed. the levels, you kind of insinuated towards it earlier about alcohol, you know, how was i able to play at such a level and drink alcohol. well, they can't today. the physical levels needed to play professional premier league football is... the physical demands also intense. exactly. if they do, the 0pare also intense. exactly. if they do, the 0pa re is also intense. exactly. if they do, the 0pare is a game, or injury time that they do still bigger.m the 0pare is a game, or injury time that they do still bigger. if it is not alcohol so much what is it? that they do still bigger. if it is not alcohol so much what is mm is gambling. the new kitty on the block at the moment is gambling. they have all swapped their addiction. they are all gaming. but 70% now, through just addiction. they are all gaming. but 70% now, throughjust the addiction. they are all gaming. but 70% now, through just the charity, through the clinic, is gambling addicts. and they have really changed their drug of choice. let me get personal with you then. your first memoir was very much about the

crash and burn of addiction during your playing career. and you said the pitch was basically a escape, it was the place you could be free from all the troubles in your life. you no longer have that. and it seems to me that if football was your addiction, to a certain extent, winning yourself away from playing must have been incredibly hard. yeah, there's harder than the drink, to be honest with you. it has been pa rt to be honest with you. it has been part of my life since i was five yea rs part of my life since i was five years old, watching my dad over the hackney marshes. my life. if erica drinking dreams today i do get a few football dreams. it is a grieving process , football dreams. it is a grieving process, like any loss. i gave up 17 yea rs process, like any loss. i gave up 17 years ago. i did choose to retire, which is very rare in our game. people go on may be too long. do you have to say to yourself, as a footballer, i need to come to terms with the fact that the best years of my life, the biggest buzzes, the most adrenaline, the most glory and excitement i am ever going to have eye between the ages of 18 and 33 andi eye between the ages of 18 and 33 and i will never live that best life

ain? and i will never live that best life again? due have to say that yourself? i have got acceptance today. the average career is only 5— six years, pfa figures. it is not 18 - 33. 99% six years, pfa figures. it is not 18 — 33. 99% dropout at 21. every boy thatis — 33. 99% dropout at 21. every boy that is signed at 16. 90% dropout by 21. there is a huge fallout. some of them never have careers. i was lucky enough that i did everything that i wa nted enough that i did everything that i wanted to do. i got six years sober, two doubles when i was over. it was easy, game, physically, mentally, emotionally. do i say to myself of course i would love to play football. the physical, emotional, mental buzz that you get from that i will never get again. thank you for reminding me. 17 years without it. this is hardtalk and i have to dig into these areas that are hard for you. post football you went into management. it seems to me that decided football could still give you that buzz and you try to manage

in the uk with wycombe, portsmouth, you enter as you went to china, you went all over the world, but the success went all over the world, but the su ccess never went all over the world, but the success never really came. went all over the world, but the success never really camelj went all over the world, but the success never really came. i was only manager at a certain level. what i was doing in the last 17 was travelling. having experiences. working in seven different countries in the last 17 years. and in all different departments of the football industry, sports direct, i was vice president of the chinese company. i was having experiences out there to find out what i was like, what i did like, the coaching of the managing, all the different jobs that go into football. in some of them i went, yeah, i quite like that. i never get, like you said, i never get that physical buzz alongside it. i never get onto the green turf again. but coaching and managing, coaching in particular, as you are a little bit closer to the grass, which i quite like. i was struck in the book by your

honesty about how you described you we re honesty about how you described you were in china so far away from family and you had a breakdown. this is only two or three years ago. you sobbed and i quote, sobbed like a baby. i was% by panic attacks, about of depression. i had never had it like this before and it came as a huge overwhelming shop. it was overwhelming and i was terrified full stop emotionally and mentally you said i was lucky enough to have a life today and i thought i would be dead at 30 so this is a bonus to me. butl be dead at 30 so this is a bonus to me. but i was sitting there and thinking that i have the world, a peaceful head, loving heart and a full family, beautiful, have everything and i was sitting there and the fun had gone out of life. i had stress with my stents, and if you put in, a main artery, my main artery was 99% closed. i came this

close to death without dying. and that trauma frightened the life out of me and it came out about two yea rs of me and it came out about two years after when i was sitting in china. because of the stress the ptsd, whatever, post—traumatic stress disorder, because of the heart sing, two years later i was thinking i don't want to die i have such a great life and it put the fear of god into me. because you are more reflective than many footballers choose to be, notjust about the game but about life, i wa nt to about the game but about life, i want to ask you about the state of your sport today. there are several things. one is the extreme amount of money that is in football today, particularly in the uk game because of the strength with the epl, they have a tv deal worth over 9 billion pounds. you never had an agent but players today are earning up to three or £4000 a week and the agents

involved in these transfers are pulling in tens of millions for each move is money in your view, the different scale of money corroding football? it says a lot about the game, 50% of footballers within the three years of retirement are still skint even though they owned that amount of money. and 50% of them get divorced which takes half. money... i think the gambling and i want to get into that because as i said earlier, thejudge drug of choice has changed, 36 gambling companies are attached to the clubs. they sponsor are attached to the clubs. they sponsor football in a big way. and because there is money around i

think they have targeted footballers who get percentages if you get more kicks, more mentors and it is really a dangerous road that they going down. they need to detach over the next three or four years and pull the sponsorship out of football. the gambling out of football. we have spoken about toxic masculinity and you spoke about dressing room codes we re you spoke about dressing room codes were speaking from the heart was a difficult thing to do and showing vulnerability full of let me ask you a simple but complex question about football, did you ever play alongside gay footballers?” football, did you ever play alongside gay footballers? i think so. alongside gay footballers? i think so. there are a couple. i did not... i never see people, my colleagues is black or white or what country they came from, i saw footballers. the point is that in the british game there has never been a footballer who felt able to come out while playing professional football at the top level. i think were close. i

think society has changed. there are many issues coming out there and i think we are, i think we are more accepting and it has happened in other sports and footballers a little slower to in this respect and i think we are very close. another issue that is topical in the professional game today, is racism and the degree to which black players are for the first time rather than keeping their heads down and handling the abuse from the terraces, they say we cannot and will not accept this anymore and after that international where the english players were abused in the montenegro there is real debate about whether players should walk off the field rather than accept this sort of abuse. how do you feel? it is going back to, really, when i played, when i first started it was horrific. carrots were thrown at me

regularly because i was known as the donkey. but a black player for arsenal, he had terrible abuse and so many black players in that era have been abused but they were just programmed ina have been abused but they were just programmed in a way to ignore it because there was nothing they could do. it is a reflection of society football football does not stand outside it and they mirror it and i think we are tackling it in society. it has its element and individuals at times who have not covered themselves in glory but in the same in football. it is a reflection of an, listen, ido in football. it is a reflection of an, listen, i do not condone any of it. it is up to the association, even gambling and stuff, it will fall back to the fa, the governing body and then government to step in in this situation to pull the players out of position of where they have to make those decisions.

players out of position of where they have to make those decisionslj they have to make those decisions.” understand what you are saying is that it understand what you are saying is thatitis understand what you are saying is that it is not a decision for players. but if you were the captain of arsenal today and playing in a big game and your black teammates we re big game and your black teammates were being abused on the terraces and it was completely obvious and to you unacceptable, with us captain say we are leaving the field?m that was the necessary thing to do, it happened in our game and no—one stood up. and it kept happening. and it is not until these people take a line with it and say this is not on, we need to do things, something is wrong here, until you can get there then i don't think you will ever change the situation. final thought, because we are out of time, but we spoke a lot about the state of football today and we also spoke about the way in which you had to navigate through an immensely pressurised existence as an elite footballer. you have children of

your own. after everything we have discussed would you say to your boys that if they have the talent they should go for it? that they should try to become professional footballers ? try to become professional footballers? absolutely. it is fantastic. i had 22 unbelievable yea rs. fantastic. i had 22 unbelievable years. i would never ever fantastic. i had 22 unbelievable years. iwould never ever discourage anybody. but the fact and the reality is that it is very, very ha rd reality is that it is very, very hard because education for a footballer is the same as education and life and we are taking steps to make these players more aware of thoughts and feelings. we are talking about it today, the issues you have brought up today about racism and addiction and all this stuff is actually out there and people are talking about it stop it was all shoved under the carpet in professional full all. all shoved under the carpet and never spoken about. so we're getting some awareness around stop the president of the fa, prince william, he is

talking about it and people are taking action full of gambling needs to come out of football and people need to speak about these issues. it is fantastic where we are right now. tony adams, a pleasure having you on hardtalk. this hello again. we have got another fine sunny day coming up today before the weather begins to change. now, on tuesday, the warmest spot in the country was again scotland, where we had temperatures of 24 degrees celsius in drumnadrochit, which is by the shores of loch ness, in highland. but by the time we get to the end of the week those temperatures are on the way down.

it's going to turn cooler and cloudier. we'll be looking at highs at best of around 18 degrees for friday. so you will notice the change in the weather for sure. for the time being, after what has been a warmer day, those temperatures are slower to fall. it will still turn fairly cool across parts of east anglia but otherwise those temperatures holding up a little better than they have done over recent nights. 0ur area of high pressure is still with us and it is going nowhere fast. just slipping a little bit further northwards. the isobars tending to ease apart. so if anything, there will be less of a wind blowing across east anglia and south—east england, where coastal areas were kept a little bit cooler on tuesday. but for wednesday those winds a little bit lighter. again, with the winds circulating in a clockwise sense, we will get the warmest air pushed up to the north and west of the uk but it's another one of those days where for many of us there will be sunshine from dawn to dusk, perhaps just a little bit of cloud developing and bubbling up across the pennines and maybe also the mountains of scotland. in the best of the sunshine, the warmest parts again likely to reach 24 degrees celsius although fairly widely we're looking

at temperatures into the high teens to low 20s. so another fine looking day coming up on wednesday. looking at the charts then towards the end of the week, we start to see some changes. an area of low pressure that has been bothering central europe recently, sneaks a little bit closer. the isobars get a little bit close together as well. so we will have a stronger easterly breeze blowing across these eastern shores of scotland, eastern parts of england. that will tend to knock the temperatures down. but as well as that there's likely to be a little bit more cloud around, maybe a few showers dotted around across the north and west. otherwise it's mainly dry. but the temperatures, you'll notice, generally into the high teens rather than the 20s. that trend into slightly cooler weather continues on into friday. still quite a bit of cloud around. there could be a few splashes of rain here and there. probably the best of any dry weather and sunshine towards the north and west of the british isles. scotland probably having the best of it. those temperatures, well, quite a bit cooler. looking at highs between 13 and 15 degrees celsius for our towns and cities. now, on into the weekend, it looks like it's likely to be quite an unsettled kind of weekend, cooler and cloudier.

there will still be some sunshine around but i think there will also be spells of rain for some at times. that's your latest weather.

this is the briefing, i'm sally bundock. our top story: confusion and tension — iran's supreme leader rules out war with the us, but the pentagon raises the threat level in the middle east. back to parliament — 10 downing street says mps will have to decide what happens to the brexit withdrawal deal in a vote in earlyjune. we have a special report from estonia, where political activists are trying to stop the rise of far—right parties. and turning off the cameras — why san francisco is banning the use of facial recognition technology by police and local agencies.

oil prices continue to climb after saudi arabia claims two