FIFA consider mandatory pre-tournament medicals

World football’s governing body FIFA is ready to consider an expansion of its medical screening programmes to cover all international tournaments.

FIFA announced on Thursday that the matter would be discussed at its next executive committee meeting in October, following recommendations made by the organisation’s medical committee.

“We set a new standard ahead of the 2006 World Cup with state-of-the-art tests for all players including electro- and echocardiograms,” FIFA’s chief medical officer Jiri Dvorak told Reuters following the death of Spain and Sevilla midfielder Antonio Puerta, 22.

“We are still in the final stages of analysing all the data but I assume the medical committee will recommend making such tests mandatory at all levels, not just for the senior men’s tournaments but for women’s and junior football too.”

While FIFA hope such measures can help minimise the risk of serious injuries or deaths on the soccer pitch, Dvorak said some cases would still get past even the best screening methods.

Puerta’s death would appear to fall into that category.

The Spanish international collapsed during the opening league match of the season on Saturday and died three days later following complications arising from a heart attack.

The hospital he was taken to said the attack had been brought on by a weakness in the right ventricle of the heart either because of a congenital problem or because cells had been replaced by fat or scar tissue.

His club pointed out that the entire squad had undergone exhaustive pre-season fitness and health tests without anything showing up during Puerta’s examinations.

UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES

“I cannot speak about Puerta in particular, but there are always going to be unforeseen circumstances that can only be completely ruled out using more aggressive and invasive procedures,” said Dvorak.

“By having the sort of tests that we carried out before the World Cup as standard, however, we can at least do all that is reasonable to reduce potential risk.”

On Wednesday, one day after Puerta’s death, Zambian striker Chaswe Nsofwa died after collapsing during a training session with his Israeli second division side Hapoel Beer Sheva.

In England, a 16-year-old trainee at third division Walsall died last week after suffering a similar collapse in training and a League Cup tie in England on Tuesday was abandoned after Leicester player Clive Clarke collapsed at half time.

He was expected to make a full recovery.

According to Dvorak there are no global statistics setting out the number of sudden cardiac failures among footballers, although for sport in general there are an estimated 1,000 deaths a year from such cases.

“It’s very difficult to get precise figures for individual sports that you can compare across different time periods because many of these cases are not diagnosed or they are covered by patient confidentiality, all of which means the problem may even be underestimated,” he said.

European soccer’s governing body UEFA told Reuters it was already working hard to minimise player fatalities.

NEW MEASURES

In an emailed response to Reuters enquiries, UEFA’s medical committee said the organisation had brought in a number of new measures to minimise player fatalities including the mandatory provision of resuscitation equipment, oxygen and trained personnel at all UEFA matches.

“UEFA has also broken new ground in recently requiring all clubs involved in European competition to carry out annual medical checks on its players, including cardiology tests,” the statement added.

“It is also planned for the 2008 European Championships that all players will have had to have had an echocardiogram (cardiac ultrasound) within the past three years.”

While the new and proposed regulations could help save lives among footballers at the top level of both junior and senior competitions, both FIFA and UEFA acknowledge that gaps will still remain at the lower level.

“We can only regulate the clubs taking part in our competitions, for the others it is down to the national associations to set the standards,” a UEFA spokesman told Reuters on Thursday.

“By organising our own pre-competition tests we are sending out a message to the world, and then it is up to the clubs to follow the recommendations,” added Dvorak.

“We have also set up FIFA medical centres around the world and sent out invitations to leading medical institutions to offer these tests as an independent service to players.

“I think FIFA is very much a leading international federation in this regard but of course it is still up to those responsible for the clubs to take advantage of modern medicine and not look to save money in this area.”