* FIFA urges associations to do more screening
* Says Italians set best example
By Katie Reid
ZURICH, Oct 17 - National football associations
should carry out more screening as part of the fight against
sudden cardiac death in footballers across the world, soccer's
world governing body FIFA said on Saturday.
Several footballers have died as a result of sudden heart
failure in recent years and Spanish players called in August for
an improvement in tests after Espanyol's Dani Jarque collapsed
and died from heart failure aged just 26. [ID:nLA419498]
"Our purpose is to enlarge what FIFA is doing. We give the
example but now we ask all the national associations to follow,"
Michel D'Hooghe, chairman of the FIFA Medical Committee, told
Reuters on the sidelines of FIFA's medical conference in Zurich.
"It is clear that in some national associations professional
players are correctly examined before the season. It is not so
that we have to ask everyone, but lets try to make a general
rule of it," he said.
FIFA has so far recommended that pre-tournament medical
assessment is carried out at its international events, but this
has yet to made compulsory.
FIFA first did pre-tournament medical assessments at the
World Cup in 2006 and the 32 squads at next year's World Cup in
South Africa will all be screened ahead of the finals.
Although playing football can help to prevent cardiovascular
disease, taking part in competitive sports can act as a trigger
for sudden cardiac death.
Ninety percent of deaths have happened in front of fans
either during training sessions or at matches, FIFA said in its
Football for Health report.
"The international football community had to witness such
tragedy when Marc Vivien Foe died on the pitch during the FIFA
Confederations Cup in 2003," FIFA said in the report.
ITALIANS BEST
In Italy, an annual clinical test is required by law before
athletes can take part in competitive sports. Screening involves
taking a general history, a physical examination and a resting
electrocardiogram (ECG).
"The best example is what the Italians have done," D'Hooghe
said. "Thanks to good pre-competition medical assessment they
found the great majority of the heart problems and they could
avoid catastrophes. It went from nine deaths to one over the
last 10 years."
He added it would not be possible to put tests in place for
all of the 260 million players across the world, saying: "This
is materially impossible and this is financially impossible.
"But at least we could ask all our national associations
that the players who are professionals, who play in tournaments
with their national team, who play in competitions of their
confederation, like in Europe the UEFA Cup, the Champions
League, would be subjected to such examinations," D'Hooghe said.
"This is only a first step. Of course, it will cost some
money but I think it's worth it as it will save some lives."
(Editing by Ken Ferris
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