Player Welfare Issues Need Addressing
Saturday’s near-tragedy was a wake-up call that athletes deserve better
Saturday evening’s Euro 2020 game between Denmark and Finland was a traumatic experience. Broadcast live, in Ultra HD, everyone was witness to the near-death experience of Christian Eriksen.
The Danish and Inter Milan midfielder collapsed on the Copenhagen pitch at roughly 1840 local time and it wasn’t until he was stretchered off the pitch that TV broadcasters decided to cut back to the studio.
That meant cameramen and TV directors spent the guts of 30 minutes looking for the all-action camera angles and zoomed-in perspectives of Eriksen receiving life-saving treatment.
It was telling that the Danish players instinctively knew to form a circle around the 29-year old to do their best to give him the privacy he deserved in such a crucial moment — after all, these are people trained to cover their mouths during private conversations.
When the “money-shot” of Eriksen couldn’t be found, the next step was to find the crying fans in the stands and then, worst of all, the crying wife of Eriksen after Kasper Schmeichel had spoken to her.
This terrible, horrific moment was made all the more traumatic by these decisions. Millions of people didn’t need to witness this.
It was bad enough that those in the crowd had nowhere to look, the sound of their stunned silence in the immediate moments after Eriksen’s collapse will stick with many for a long time.
But the image of Eriksen receiving a shock from the defibrillator was caught on camera, that was reportedly the moment he awoke and for many people they saw that moment live because of the nosey TV directors.
When a streaker runs onto the pitch, or a player furiously curses a refereeing decision, these people are quick to “shield” the viewer but when a man’s life was in danger it was spun into hashtag content.
Fortunately, the on-pitch response to Eriksen saved his life. But the aftermath for this Danish side has been ugly.
UEFA offered the team three options, finish the game on Saturday, finish it on Sunday or forfeit the game 3–0.
These players shouldn’t have to be put through such a tough decision. It was an hour after Eriksen collapsed that they took to the field again, now without their talisman and friend.
Danish forward Martin Braithwaite admitted after the match that he was not in the correct headspace to continue playing.
“My thoughts were in a different place when we were playing the second half against Finland. It wasn’t ideal to play a football match at that point,” said Braithwaite.
There is no way that match should’ve been restarted. But UEFA have shown far too many times that they simply don’t care about player welfare so why are they going to start now?
Even Dutch defender Daley Blind said that he, too, was unsure if he was mentally prepared to play following the scenes in Copenhagen.
“What happened last night has much impact on me. Not only because Christian is a very close friend of me, but also because of what happened to myself. I considered not to play tonight, I had to take a very big mental step,” said Blind.
This was yet another example of player welfare not being taken seriously enough.
The players have been stretched to their limits due to the schedule-makers. UEFA have played a huge role in allowing this to continue.
Players are being asked to play 60 games a season even amid a pandemic that has shortened the calendar by a month.
It was only a few months ago that they agreed to increase the schedule by adding four more games as part of the new Champions League reforms.
In 2017, when the Borussia Dortmund bus was bombed before a Champions League quarter final first leg, UEFA insisted on the game going ahead the next day.
It is really quite sick to see the sporting bodies and institutions that would be nothing without the players use them and exploit them for their own financial gain.
What happened to Eriksen should be a wake up call that everything needs to be better.
More needs to be done to protect the players. The schedules need to be lighter, more services need to be put in place to help them mentally deal with the problems that arise from playing professionally.
If a player is injured but can physically still play, they should be incentivised to take the time off to heal up because it’s costing players time in their careers.
But with the condensed calendar being the way that it is, there is no time for these players to take anytime off.
Players, too, are being racially abused on a daily, weekly, monthly basis — some even by their own fans. What have the governing bodies done to help these players? Nothing.
Their physical and mental health and well-being isn’t worth being sacrificed to fill the pockets of these bodies. They may be wealthy athletes, but they are human and that can’t be forgotten.
They have lives, they have loved ons, they will have a life after football too. These factors can’t be dismissed just because players tend to earn much more than the average worker. They still only see a small fraction of the money the game earns from their work.
It is miraculous that Eriksen is still with us, but a failure to contend with these issues leaves football open to further tragedy.
