It was an incident that shook the footballing world. To witness such an event was horrible to watch and it was seen by thousands at White Hart Lane along with millions on TV. We’d heard the news of previous incident’s like Muamba but none of us could imagine that we would witness it first hand amongst elite players in the best league in the world. We all pray for Muamba’s well being and welcome the news that he is slowly recovering but it will be a long process, with no guarentee that we will ever watch him play football ever again.
This is why change is needed, much like what was witnessed after the injury to Petr Cech five-and-a-half years ago. I welcome the news that the Premier League has realised that something needs to change and any improvements in medical procedures can only be good news. Mourinho, who was in charge of Chelsea at the time of Cech’s injury, hit out at the Premier League and the club made an official complaint. The complaint initiated a review of medical procedures and led to key changes, ambulances bein in place at each stadium for the exclusive use of players and club doctors attending every game. These changes may well have saved Muamba’s life.
It’s still not perfect and incidents often highlight areas that need to be improved. Mancini was right in his comments, stating that the Premier League should introduce regulations like in his native Italy. There the players have medicals every 6 months, screening for anything that could create a later problem. In Britain these happen annually, which is obviously not good enough. We should strive to be better than every other league in every aspect, especially medically. Our League is watched by millions worldwide and we should be doing everything to avoid incident’s like what we saw on Saturday.
Richard Scudamore, chairman of the Premier League, has stated that the medical procedure will be reviewed to ensure the players get the best possible care. He was correct with what he said, Incidents and events do shape policy, do shape developments, do shape progress. I don’t even want to imagine what could have happened on Saturday evening if it wasn’t for the reforms that were put in place after Cech’s injury. Any action to prevent this sort of event happening in the future needs to be taken, none of us want to see that sort of thing again. Of course these things happen but it’s need to be a minimal possibility.
I’m sure the Premier League will understand this, which is good a it shows that our game is travelling in the right direction. In all honesty I class these reforms as more important than goal line technology and I’ll be surprised if anyone disagrees. Nothing is more important than the safety of those involved in football, whether it be players, coaches or fans.
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