Every football pitch should have emergency medical standards - Experts

Fabrice Muamba had collapsed in the middle of the pitch during the FA Cup match between Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur

Football experts and researchers have laid a warning to football pitches around the world about the use of emergency equipment provided by FIFA in all kinds of football matches to treat players who suffer like Fabrice Muamba, according to the Mirror.

The former Bolton and Birmingham City midfielder was effectively dead for an hour and had collapsed due to a cardiac arrest on the pitch during an FA Cup match between Tottenham Hotspur and Bolton last year.

The researchers say that the pitches around the world should adopt universal emergency medical care standards set out by FIFA to curb and subjugate the danger of serious injuries and deaths.

The International Panel of experts has written in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that all kinds of players, be it professional or amateur, should enjoy the same standard of care.

As per the experts, FIFA’s emergency medical bag contains generic equipments, but which are essential and can be used anywhere in the world at all levels.

In June the emergency medical bag was sent to all of the 209 member associations of FIFA, but its accessibility to the players still remains an issue.

They wrote: “The FIFA Medical Emergency Bag (FMEB) and FIFA 11 steps to prevent sudden cardiac death are part of a comprehensive preventative programme to appropriately manage sudden cardiac arrest and other acute life threatening or serious field-of-play medical emergencies, The FMEB is the proposed medical equipment standard to be provided at every football field and to be used when medical emergencies arise.”