Fabrice Muamba, How Prepared is Ghana

Not long ago Fabrice Muamba, a Congolese born footballer who plough his trade in the English Premiership League (EPL) had a brush up with demise.

The Bolton Wanderer midfielder collapsed and suffered cardiac arrest while featuring in an FA Cup quarter final clash against Tottenham at White Hart Lane. Fabrice, 24 years who recently left intensive care at the London chest hospital, died technically for eighty minutes, because his heart had stopped for that long. This was according to the medics who conveyed him to the hospital. What was clearly emphatic had to do with the availability of the necessary facilities to keep him alive. The standby ambulance had a Cardiac Specialist on board which invaluably saved the young footballer’s life from almost a fatality. Again, before the world could drag herself from the trauma of a near lose of Fabrice on the field of play, an Italian of Serie B side Livorno, Piermario Morosini unfortunately died during a football game. The Livorno midfielder was not lucky enough to escape death just as his compatriot in the EPL.

The maze which the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and the Ghana League Clubs Association (GALCA) need to answer is how ready the organisers of the Local Premier League for an unexpected and eventful Fabrice Muamba are? A season ago Kumasi base Premiership team then, Kessben Football Club, lost a player in an encounter with Liberty Professionals. The player had collapsed on the field of play. Due to the lack of purposeful first aid, Ghana was defeated when death snatched a nurtured talent. Again, on the 9th May, 2001, one hundred and twenty-six soccer fans died at the Ohene Djan Stadium. This day has been christened black Wednesday in the history of Ghana football. The souls that perished on that unfortunate day through such a painful medium could have been saved if the appropriate facilities were available at the stadium. One scenario worth noting is the battle for the survival of Fabrice Muamba began right at the White Hart Lane the home ground of Bolton. Can you imagine if facilities at hand at White Hart Lane were depleted or not up to scratch? There is every need to tell it off to the authorities deservedly without rancor of fear or favour that, our stadia require better and modern day life saving gargets. It is one thing having structures in place and another putting into place the needed resource be it manpower or gargets. Some of the stadia in the country are nothing but trappings of death. All these culminate in the ebb of interest of spectators patronizing live Local League matches. One thing is assured in the minds of those football loving fans who witnessed the Fabrice Muamba incident at White Hart Lane, safety should not be compromised. The pledge of safety and protection of the lives of the main actors on the pitch and fans alike boost their confidence to patronize the product, the English Premier League. Time and again, calls have been made to the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and the bodies under her umbrella to ensure the highest standard of the sport known as the beautiful game has yield less dividend. The 24 year old Bolton midfielder died technically for eighty minutes. How prepared and resilient are our facilities to bring back to life a near casualty? We need to do more as a people to prevent deaths at the stadia. Any step in this direction will serve as confidence booster among Ghanaian soccer fans, who will tell themselves “Let’s do it again”.

Despite, the request to authorities to decisively deal with elements of danger which puts the life of patrons of the Local League under threat, efforts has not been forth coming. The various Team Managements should also put in place endearing and pragmatic protection policies to prevent any gory scenes in the stadiums. Managers of the various Football Clubs should take interest in the health state of their charges. It will be unfortunate for Clubs owners to only tier their zest to the good returns – results from games – those players turns out with. Players should be screened regularly by a qualified professional Medical Doctor to avert any unexpected events. Additionally, proper medical professional team should also be constituted under the keen guidance of the Football Association to purposely scrutinize the health status reports of their players that Clubs will submit.

This will serve as a counter to verify the veracity or otherwise of health reports. The dietary requirements of players should equally be looked at critically. Nutritionist should be hired to either be the source of food provision or advisers on nutritional needs of players in the right order. Comparatively Excellent kits are relevant, but not overly important to the personalities who use them. Somehow the FA can again be involved in this perspective as well, for the reason that, the health of these players is paramount. Psychologically, it would have left an irreparable traumatic memory with the spectators at the White Hart Lane had Fabrice Muamba joined our silent fathers. This could equally, affect a lot of soccer fans who witnessed it or viewed television that fateful day with mental picture intrusions of the incident. Some might stay away from live matches. Again, any time a player goes down onto the turf past memories will intrude into the thoughts of a spectator or more.

Let the GFA work avidly to prevent this incident from reoccurring in our stadium. As the current situation persists there are infrastructural deficiencies which we need to together work round avidly. We cannot keep counting action now!

Patrick Twumasi (0209045931)