Professional Football - A week to remember

It's been a bit of a grim week on the football pitch this week , with three young professional footballers dying and one recovering after experiencing severe heart failure during a match.
The 27-year-old 6 ' 1" Irish international left back Clive Clarke joined Leicester City on loan two weeks ago, and their Carling Cup tie against Nottingham Forest was abandoned at half time after Clarke collapsed - only to be revived by defibrillation after mouth to mouth resusciation failed. He is recovering in Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham.

Also on Tuesday , Seville's Spanish international Antonio Puerta, 22, died after losing consciousness on the pitch during a La Liga game against Getafe on Saturday. Puerta was able to walk off but suffered a relapse in the dressing room and required cardiac resuscitation.

Puerta became a hero to Sevilla fans after scoring a spectacular goal in extra time against Schalke that earned them their place in the UEFA Cup final for the first time in April 2006. The Spanish side went on to lift the cup and then retained it in 2007.

This is not the first time that the Andalucian team have had such a setback, in 1973, Pedro Berruelo Martin died on the pitch due to a cardiac arrest while defending the Sevilla colours in a Segunda Liga game against Pontevedra. His wife was pregnant at the time and his son Pedro is now a professional footb aller with Segunda B side Ceuta.

Last week, 16-year-old Walsall youth team player Anton Reid died after collapsing during a training session. It is not the first time such a youngster has died in this way in the , Daniel Yorath who was on Leeds United's boks, son of Terry and brother of Gabby Logan, died aged 15 in 1992 having a back-garden kick-around.

To make it a grimmer week Chaswe Nsofwa, 26 who played for Zambia in the 2002 African Cup of Nations, collapsed during a practice session on Wednesday in the Israeli city of Beersheva where he played for Hapoel Beersheva, which plays in Israel’s second division.He collapsed in the heat of over 100 degrees and and died minutes later in Soroka Hospital, Beersheba.
Nsofwa was with Hapoel Beersheva, which plays in Israel’s second division. Israel TV reported he collapsed during a practice game in the desert city. Rescue workers tried to restart his heart for several minutes on the field before taking him to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.

Miklos Feher, 24, died playing for Benfica against Victoria Guimaraes in January 2004. The player collapsed after receiving a yellow card and died later that night from a confirmed cardiac arrest.

Marc Vivien-Foé, the former West Ham and Manchester City player, who collapsed while playing for Cameroon in Lyons against Colombia on 26th June 2003 was subsequently discovered to have an enlarged right ventricle which hadn't been picked in ECG screening.

David Longhurst, 25, who started playing for Nottingham Forest youth team, fatal suffered a heart attack playing for York City in 1990. York later named one of the stands at Bootham Crescent after him.

Robbie James, 40, capped 47 tmes for Wales, had a lengthy career playing for Swansea City, Stoke City and QPR r died on the pitch playing for Llanelli AFC, where he was player-manager, in 1998. James won 47 caps for Wales.

Risk factors for coronary heart disease in men 18 to 39


There are few studies relating to risk for coronary disease in young men those that have identify, as might be expected the normal indicators.

The Chicago Heart Association Detection Project, followed 11,016 men ages 18 to 39 years (average about 30 years) were followed for twenty years. During the followup period, 455 men died, 123 of them from coronary heart disease. The three major risk factors for heart disease deaths were elevated cholesterol level, elevated blood pressure, and cigarette smoking. Being overweight by itself was not a significant risk factor (but, when the increased weight results in increased cholesterol or blood pressure, it becomes a risk factor).

Screening is fairly standard, especially when footballers are expensive commodities / slaves - evidently such screening doesn't identify every risk.

Pic Puerta scores in extra time for Sevilla against Schalke

Big Sam fingered in Panorama program - by whom ?

On the 28th May BBC Online Sport had a fascinating piece on Sam Allardyce, Bolton Wanderers, no nonsense, up front, bluff, northern manager.

Basically Sam was having a dig at David Dein ...Dein was part of the six-man panel who interviewed Bolton boss Allardyce for the England coaching job.

"I don't know how much power David Dein has but he obviously has a great influence at the FA," said Big Sam.

"One minute he had nothing to do with it the next he was on the top table interviewing candidates. You'd have to ask them how that came about."

Later explaining In an interview with the News of the World, Big Sam commented: "We do know one thing, he wouldn't want the rest of the committee to go for Arsene Wenger.

"I am sure he would have batted that back with as much vigour as possible."

Meaning of course that Dein wouldn't want to lose the services of Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, nor his contacts, and closeness to Jerome Anderson of SEM who acted for Charlie Nicholas, David Seaman and Ian Wright joining the club and more recently he brought in Thierry Henry and Frannie Jeffers (reputedly for an SEM cut of £650,000).

So no big surprise when someone (?) fingered Big Sam's son in the Panorama program tonight. Craig Allardyce, who has his own agency Prolific Management Limited now, but who worked for agent Mark Curtis. It was Mark who got into hot water with Arsenal when he acted as intermediary for Arsenal in the transfer of Jermaine Pennant, 15, from Notts County and was said to have paid Pennant's dad £700 to complete the £10,000 deal.

Arsenal denied they acted wrongly and distanced themselves from Curtis.

A club statement at the time said : "Arsenal Football Club has acted responsibly throughout these negotiations. Mark Curtis, who is an authorised agent, acted on behalf of Arsenal in setting up an agreement between the club and Notts County.

"Any financial transaction between Mark Curtis and Garry Pennant was totally without the knowledge and authorisation of Arsenal Football Club. Mark Curtis signed a standard agreement with Arsenal Football Club - an agreement that the club would use with any authorised agent.

Craig Allardyce acts as the official agent to Israeli national team player 24 year old Tal Ben Haim who currently plays for Bolton and was bought for an undisclosed sum from Maccabi Tel Aviv. There was great excitement in August when Ben Haim refused to train for the Israeli national team and was suspended but reinstated 2 weeks later after Big Sam's insistence.

PANORAMA CLAIMS

"In undercover filming three different agents name Sam Allardyce, a recent candidate for the England manager's job, as a corrupt manager. Two of them say that they have made illegal payments to Sam Allardyce personally," a BBC Panorama press release says.

"Peter Harrison, an agent known to be close to Allardyce, is secretly filmed saying that he bribes Sam by offering to pay his son Craig: He says: "If I say 'Listen Sam, I'll give Craig some money'... he'll say 'Yeah, okay, we'll do a deal.'"

"Panorama has also uncovered that three different Bolton transfer signings (of defender Tal Ben Haim, Japanese star Hidi Nakata, and goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi - 23 yr old Omani who joined from SFK Lyn of Norway.) involved secret payments from agents to Craig Allardyce. The programme understands that Craig Allardyce received around £50,000 ($A130,000) for the deal involving Ben Haim. At the time Craig was contractually banned from doing any Bolton deals.

"In the case of two of these deals (Nakata and Ali Al-Habsi), the agent secretly paying Craig was Peter Harrison."

"Craig admitted to BBC reporter Alex Millar that his father Sam Allardyce did know about these payments, saying: 'Yeah course he knew course he knew... I've never hidden anything.'"