Football EM 2021 FIFpro criticizes Uefa for dealing with the health of the players

The football players ‘union FIFPro has criticized Uefa for its handling of players’ health. »Football should have taken urgent action five years ago, instead it continues contradicting itself. If the weaknesses are known, the rules are changed, but the crucial point is not the question of the health of the players, that amounts to moral bankruptcy, ”said FIFPro general secretary Jonas Baer-Hoffmann of the“ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ”.

Baer-Hoffmann also referred to the handling of the collapse of the Dane Christian Eriksen at the European Football Championship. “The decision-making process after traumatic incidents must be thoroughly checked and changed.” The emotional situation of the players must be the decisive criterion, said Baer-Hoffmann, but leaving them responsible for the decision under the shock or trauma is not responsible.

Baer-Hoffmann also criticizes the non-stop playing stress and the handling of possible head injuries. He criticized the unwillingness of football to adequately deal with the problem.

The FIFPro complained that the international rules do not allow temporary player changes for investigations. “In almost all other sports there are better solutions than in football,” said Baer-Hoffmann.

He referred to the practice in the NFL football league, in which team doctors are accompanied by a second, independent doctor, whose judgment is ultimately decisive because a team doctor who ignores the diagnosis of the neutral doctor makes himself vulnerable in liability issues .