Watching European football always leaves you with a lot of lasting impressions. The ambience around the stadium is inviting. You immediately want to belong as the clock ticks towards the commencement of the game. The enchanting atmosphere inside and outside the stadium soon gets you to align with whichever side you have chosen to support – that is if you aren’t dressed in the country’s or club’s colours, making your choice apparent.
Back to the settings in our different living rooms and choice spots where matches are shown, the contrasting styles of viewership among those watching the games are diametrically opposite except that the choice spots are volatile largely because bets are placed on the outcome of key matches. In fact, it is worse to sit and watch European club football.
But last Sunday, I discovered that I was alone watching the Netherlands’ game against Hungary at the Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam, with three Liverpool FC of England’s players, Cody Gakpo, Ryan Gravenberch, Virgil van Dijk on the Dutch side and one of them, Dominik Szoboszlai on the Hungarian side. Interestingly, the two nations’ captains Dominik Szoboszlai and Virgil van Dijk play for Liverpool.
The game started with the Hungarians missing two easy goal scoring chances, especially the one missed by Szoboszlai, until the eighth minute when the game had to be interrupted due to what was termed a medical emergency at the sidelines close to the technical area. Note that before the game was suspended, the Dutch had taken a corner kick in which the ensuing melee in the Hungarians’ penalty box necessitated a review to find out if the ball actually touched the hand of one of the Hungarian players. This review was Kept In View (KIP), with attention focused on the person under medical emergency.
I missed the English with their theatrics in handling the same setting. They would have shown us the waiting ambulance revving (the standby in the event of unseen occurrences), live videos of the hospital where the patient be taken to and how the hospital’s personnel were waiting to ensure that the chain in the medical emergency train was iron cast. In this case, the Dutch kept theirs simple, choosing to hoist a medical canopy to shield the patient away from public view to some extent while both countries’ medical crews supporting those in the stadium for such medical emergencies to revive the patient.
Happily, we were spared the drama and precision in taking the patient from the place to the hospital because the patient was revived within 13 minutes and taken away on his feet from the technical area for further treatment. The rapturous clapping of hands inside the stadium was electrifying just as it showed that the Medicare of everyone watching games was sacrosanct. The game was held for 13 minutes and what excited me was the line of communication among the players seeking to know if the patient stood any chance of being resuscitated.
Several times, I saw Holland’s captain, Virgil van Dijk walk towards the closet where the patient was getting cherry information about the patient which he conveyed to them. The least of the 22 players walking around the playing field to loosen up their muscles had their minds on the continuation of the match with the individual still distressed.
When the referees, however, sounded his whistle for the game to continue, the focus went straight to the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) machine for an interpretation of the goalmouth melee incident before the game was stopped. There wasn’t protest from the Hungarians as they stood hands akimbo to watch the obvious as revealed by the VAR. This writer looked towards the Hungarian coach whose countenance showed that he accepted the decision.
What was clear before the penalty kick was taken was the power of country over club when there was the need to choose between them in match situations. Just before Gakpo shot the ball beyond the Hungarian goalkeeper’s reach, the captain walked towards him to whisper where Gakpo would whip the ball into. Of course, Gakpo saw his Liverpool mate passing instructions to his goalkeeper and sent the ball in the opposite direction.
I waited to see how the indications of the 13 minutes spent on the medical emergency case and the normal time wasted in the course of the game. The reserve referee raised the changing board which was 0:13 which was played out before raising the board for two minutes extra time. I marvelled at what I was watching and my mind raced to the domestic game in Nigeria and how we would have handled the same situations flawlessly like the Dutch did.
Back home Nigeria, the domestic game runs without the VAR machine which effectively won’t match what the VAR did in resolving the hand ball from a corner kick taken by the Dutch in the eighth minute during the European Nations Cup game between Holland and Hungary in Amsterdam. And like I have told those who cared to listen that the VAR machine would continue to be a mirage for the beautiful game until FIFA makes it a mandatory prerequisite for hosting any international game.
Except for such strict instructions from FIFA would Nigeria deem it appropriate to install the VAR machine?
The seamless manner in which the Dutch FA handled the medical emergency case underscored the need to interrogate how the NFF and indeed those in charge of organising ours would treat medical emergency cases. Deep inside me, I prayed fervently that such medical emergencies should not happen here. My fear rose from the indolent manner in which we handle such critical functions in Nigeria.
Nigerian doctors can match their counterparts anywhere in the world, but the attitude of those in the medical chain could inhibit a seamless act beginning with the absence of power and if the ambulance’s driver would be at alert. No disrespect to the drivers
Perhaps, the question to the NPFL is, are the medicare for everyone inside the stadium across the country are? Are there plans such that patients can be easily be driven from the stadium to hospital and treated based on the contractual terms? It would be foolhardy for patients to be taken to the hospital and be subjected to the harrowing of waiting inside the ambulance until clearance from the owners of the hospital is received before the distressed person is treated. No one would blame the owners of such a business enterprise if such contractual partner is a habitual debtor.
Can the NFF and indeed the NPFL tell us how many Nigerian clubs with brand new ambulances fitted with the state-of-the-art facilities to handle emergencies before excavating patients to the hospital? How many stadia in Nigeria have fully equipped medical rooms to serve as the first place of contact to stabilise distressed patients? Can NFF and NPFL tell us where patients with medical emergencies can be taken to without any delays arising from debts owed such hospitals?
There is, therefore, the need to align our football leagues calendar with the rest of the world for August to July so that we can have a football season that will be devoid of any rancour and will be a source of pride to its sponsors as well as its followers. There is a need for a well laid out and functional football structure in the country that will engender active involvement of private and public partnership.
