An investigation by Real-Time News revealed that the majority of the athletes were men, with only 15 women, and the vast majority were between 17 and 40 years old. Only 21 seniors (5 from 42 to 45 years old, six from 46 to 49 years old, 7 from 51 to 54 years old and another 3 from 60 to 64 years old). 23 were adolescents, between 12 and 17 years old, of which 16 died.
Since December, 183 professional athletes and coaches have suddenly collapsed, 108 dead.
The investigation revealed that; In more than 80 of the cases, such as soccer stars Sergio Agüero and Christian Eriksen, athletes collapsed while playing, competing, or training, or immediately afterward. Scientific literature calls the phenomenon of the collapse of athletes for reasons other than injury unusual.
Cause of collapse was related to the heart
In most cases, the cause of the collapse was related to the heart, such as myocarditis, pericarditis, heart attacks or cardiac arrest, with the second most frequent cause being cases of clotting.
READ ALSO: FIFA players dying suddenly, athletes collapsing with heart attacks: 370 cases in 2021
Real-Time News emphasized that: “the list we have is even longer, but by conservative estimate, dozens of cases were eliminated, for which we did not have full details, so only the cases that were reported in detail were included. "
Cases in which evidence of previous risk factors, such as heart disease or diabetes, was mentioned were eliminated.
To get a better picture of the data compared to previous years, Real-Time News only analyzed data related to deaths among athletes registered with FIFA and compared the data regarding the number of Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) / Sudden Death. Unexplained (SUD) in athletes in previous years, to the number of cases in 2021.
To find out how many cases occurred in 2021, they used the list compiled by Real-Time News
To find out how many deaths actually occurred during the last two decades among FIFA players (2001-2020), they used Wikipedia - “List of association footballers, who died while playing”. To find out how many cases occurred in 2021, they used the list compiled by Real-Time News that includes the cases noted on Wikipedia for 2021.
Dr. Josh Guetzkow, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University Institute of Criminology, analyzed the data and told Real-Time News:
“An article published in the British Medical Journal shows that the risk of SCD is one in 50.000, with a range of one in 30.000 to one in 80.000, according to FIFA data, in 2000 there were 242.000 athletes registered with the association, and in 2006 there were 265.000 registered athletes. Assuming that FIFA hasn't changed significantly in twenty years, we can expect around 5 deaths a year ”.
"List of association footballers who died while playing"
According to Wikipedia, in the “List of association footballers, who died while playing”, in 2001-2020 there was an average of 4,2 deaths per year attributed to MSC or SUD, the vast majority from MSC. By contrast, in 2021, according to the Real-Time News list, there were 21 cases of MSC / SUD among FIFA players. In other words, instead of 4 MSC / SUD deaths per year (according to Wikipedia data), or 5 cases per year (calculated according to the BMJ) during 2001-2020, 21 players have died so far this year.
The list of 183 athletes who collapsed and / or died since December 2020 can be seen here!
Source : https://diariodevallarta.com/en/muertes-cardiacas-subitas-e-inexplicables-entre-los-jugadores-de-la-fifa-en-2021/
