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Players must have heart check
Every player involved in Euro 2008 must undergo cardiac
screening before the finals next June, UEFA's general secretary David
Taylor said.
UEFA also ruled that the official team doctor would be required to sit
in the dugout alongside the coach and the rest of the squad during matches.
"All possible precautions must be taken to ensure the safety of the
players," Taylor told reporters at the end of a two-day meeting of
UEFA's executive committee before the draw for next year's finals
"Every player must have a cardiac screening and it is the responsibility
of the national associations' medical experts to ensure their players
are tested."
"They will also have to decide what action they will take if for
any reason a player fails a test."
There have been a number of heart-related deaths among young footballers
at senior level in recent years.
The best known case is that of Cameroon's Marc-Vivien Foe who collapsed
during Cameroon's 1-0 victory against Colombia in a Confederations Cup
match in June 2003 in Lyon, France, and died shortly afterwards.
Since then there have been at least six sudden deaths involving professional
footballers, most of them found to be heart-related.
The most recent case involved Sevilla midfielder Antonio Puerta who died
on August 28, three days after collapsing during a Primera Liga match
against Getafe.
Team doctors usually sit on the bench but until now competition rules
have not obliged them to do so.
The committee also agreed that giant screens could show live match action
in the stadium.
Taylor said that, for the first time at a European championship, the match
action could be shown but that no controversial incidents would be replayed.
TheWorldGame.com.au,
2 December 2007
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