WHEN FOOTBALL BECAME SECONDARY

GARETH Bale botched a penalty attempt, the execution of which would have embarrassed an under eight, Germany lost at home in Munich to current world champions France and Italy scored six goals in their first two matches and Ronaldo equalled the tournament goalscoring record at Euro 2020, but none of these moments rank when compared to Denmark’s Christian Eriksen’s near-death experience against Finland.

Eriksen collapsed in the 42nd minute from a cardiac arrest and for 13 minutes, on-field doctors worked to bring him back to life.

If you don’t follow football, this is a timeline of what happened on a day in which the soccer community bared its soul, even if the custodians of the tournament sold theirs to the corporate devil that is money.

Eriksen is considered one of Denmark’s greats, even though he is just 29 years old, but in the 42nd minute, he collapsed to the ground and appeared motionless.

The Danish team doctor Morten Boesen was among the team of medical professionals who rushed to Eriksen. Boesen, afterwards said the player was gone and the doctors did a cardiac resuscitation.

Boesen was a hero and so was Denmark’s captain Simon Kjaer. Kjaer, aware of the severity of the moment, helped to adjust Eriksen’s body position in order to avoid further injury, then led his players in forming a shield around Eriksen to allow the doctors to go to work. The captain, with goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel also comforted Eriksen’s distraught girlfriend Kvist Jensen.

The Danish players were remarkable in their response and even more remarkable was the work of Boesen and the medics in those 13 minutes the world of football watched on without breathing.

Another doctor, the German Jens Kleinefeld was one of the first to treat Eriksen on the field and he helped deliver the electric shock that restarted Eriksen’s heart. He revealed later that Eriksen’s first words, in answer to questions from doctors of ‘are you back with us?’, was to scream out: ‘Yes, I am back with you. For f***s sake, I’m only 29 years old.’

Eriksen is still in hospital, but he has been communicating with fans and the footballing world on social media.

Football, in those 13 minutes Eriksen lay motionless, became so secondary to every supporter watching around the world. All the prayers were for Eriksen to move again and to talk. Life meant more than a football match and the player’s life rightly had greater value than a result. Which made the tournament organisers’ decision to force Denmark to restart the match less than two hours later so crass.

Denmark, if their players refused to play, were told the match would be declared a forfeit and Finland would be awarded a 3-0 victory. Finland’s players were as disgusted in the enforcement of the protocols and only agreed to it if they were given confirmation that Eriksen was out of danger.

Denmark’s players rallied to get back on the field but their minds were with Eriksen, and understandably so. They lost 1-0.

Goals and results seemed so secondary as this footballing community combined in a common cause that was Eriksen’s well-being. Soccer showed its soul, but the back-drop to this is that for the light of the players, supporters and managers, there was the dark of tournament organisers whose corporate greed was stronger than any understanding of an occasion, in which the near-death of a player should have naturally resulted in the death of the match.

Not so for those in charge of Euro 2020, who a few days later, in a very different set of circumstance, would also plant a Heineken beer bottle in front of Muslim Paul Pogba when he was about to address the media.

Pogba showed his class in how he removed the sponsor’s beer bottle, which is more than the tournament organisers have shown at Euro 2020.