Fifa Bid To Prevent Player Deaths

FIFA wants all teams in the 2006 World Cup to supply medical certificates in a bid to prevent a re-occurrence of the death of Cameroon midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe exactly two years ago.

FIFA also wants the medical certificate to include details of cardiological examinations players have undergone and details of any specific problems.

The announcement comes after the death of Hugo Cunha, a 28-year-old midfielder for Portuguese first division club Uniao Leiria, who collapsed and died during a non-competitive match with friends near Lisbon at the weekend.

Above from aertel

I was at the Brazil v Cameroon game only days before Foe died (during the Cameroon-Columbia match). The sadness in France after the event was pretty overwhelming. But there are more cases of this 'sudden death' in sport - and not the penalty shoot-out kind!

Miklos Feher died on 25th of January last year playing for Benfica against Vitoria Guimaraes
John McCall died playing under-19 rugby for Ireland against New Zealand last year too, only shortly after GAA player Cormac McAnallen died in his sleep.

Its a frightening trend that I never noticed before. I'm glad FIFA are doing something, but in reality the phenomenon appears to be affecting more than just the elite players who will be at the World Cup

Wouldn't FIFA be better off putting in place a compensation system for players effected? To me, this just smacks of preventing it damaging FIFA's marketing of tournaments rather than real action. I mean how would medical certs at a World Cup prevent someone dying in a kick around in the park with his mates?

It is a bit too late for Mrs Foe.

Not playing tournaments during the day in June might help !

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CollegeTillIDie

Not playing tournaments during the day in June might help !

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You mad radical fool. FIFA to use some common sense? :rolleyes: