Christian Eriksen's collapse during the Denmark-Finland match at the last European Championship created a terrifying scenario that fortunately had a happy ending. There were more than fifteen minutes in which the world of football stopped, pending the resuscitation exercises that the Dane was receiving on the same grass at the Parken Stadion in Copenhagen. The footballer regained consciousness and after a long recovery process has returned to the playing fields. He currently plays for Manchester United with a defibrillator implanted in his heart. With this paradigmatic case as an example, UEFA has promoted new protocols for the prevention of cardiac arrests and, above all, training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation together with the European Resuscitation Congress under the motto “Train yourself, save lives.”
The Euro Cup that Germany will host next summer will be the great showcase of this initiative that aims to “use football as a tool to reach society,” as confirmed by Dr. Zoran Bahtijarevic, UEFA's chief medical officer and former doctor of the Croatian national team.
It is estimated that around ten million fans will attend the ten fan zones that will be installed in the various venues of the Euro Cup. In all of them there will be a space for awareness and training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and it is expected that around 100,000 fans will receive the course. A television campaign and interactive courses with familiar faces will also be launched so that fans can learn basic techniques easily. At the moment, Ruud Gullit is the visible face, but the intention is to involve as many footballers as possible.
The first to receive training in the matter was Aleksandr Ceferin himself, president of UEFA, as well as his entire senior staff. But also the footballers of the four finalist teams of the last Nations League, including Spain, and of several final phases in lower categories received it, reaching a total of 2,700 people at the moment. The image of Conan Ledesma during a Cádiz-Barça match running for a defibrillator after a fan collapsed is given as an example of the importance of the footballers themselves knowing the procedure in these emergency situations.
The Eriksen case has also pushed UEFA to establish new medical protocols that are already being put into practice and that will be mandatory starting with the Euro Cup, such as mandatory training for all those involved in the competitions, including footballers. In addition, on the agenda of each match, one hour before kick-off there will be a meeting between the doctors of the two teams and an independent doctor specially trained in resuscitation to establish a concrete way of proceeding in the event of cardiac arrest, such as who will be in charge and what role each one will play. If the initiative is successful, it is estimated that 100,000 lives per year could be saved in Europe alone.
