The horrific sight of Christian Eriksen collapsing to the floor during Denmark’s Euro 2020 game against Finland last month left plenty of people soul searching.
If a world-class footballer, one of the best of the best, who undergoes regular testing and is undoubtedly among the fittest people on the planet, can suffer a medical incident like that, then the very real fact of the matter is that, sadly, it can happen to anyone.
Whilst Eriksen was thankfully able to receive the sort of heroic medical treatment that meant his story ultimately avoided a tragic end, that sort of immediate care isn't always possible at every level of the game.
It means a new campaign from Grassroots, supported by Mastercard, could not be more timely.
Grassroots have teamed up with Mastercard UK in order to supply 100 locations with a free defibrillator as they look to support venues that regularly host football for multiple teams and age groups.
Paul Kirton, founder of Grassroots, says the campaign will hopefully go a long way to saving lives.
He said: “We’ve had funding from Mastercard to purchase 100 defibrillators and roll them out for free across the country.
“It’s an application-based initiative, what we’ll try to do is distribute them in areas that have a high demographic of players, so we can potentially protect the most amount of people as possible.
“We’ve been a huge advocate of the rollout of defibrillators in grassroots football for a long time now - we’ve campaigned for the price of items to come down and for funding from different areas, so it was fantastic when Mastercard agreed to really help the grassroots community.
“It was horrific to see what happened with Christian Eriksen but, on the back of that, there’s been a groundswell to protect the people whose names you never heard of because they weren’t famous footballers and there wasn’t a defibrillator there, but they were people just like everybody else, and I think everyone deserves that level of protection.
“So we were really thrilled when Mastercard wanted to join up with us and support this initiative.”
Kirton is hopeful that the incident involving Eriksen will help encourage more people to assess how they can help in similar situations.
He said: “People know now that it can happen and does happen.
“People like ourselves are trying to help the best we can, not only with the defibrillators, because it’s more than that, there’s also the educational side.
“The FA have a cardiac arrest course that you can take for free now, so there’s lots of different sources of material to help people.
“We never want to see something like that happen again but, unfortunately, we know it will happen again, so, we can educate people as to how to respond and supply equipment to give people a better chance.
“It’s immeasurable giving someone that enhanced chance at that life or death moment.”
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Agnes Woolrich, vice president of marketing and communications at Mastercard UK & Ireland, said the campaign is key to keeping people safe when playing and watching football.
She said: “Football is a passion that unites us across the country, whether it be for the love of the professional game or at Grassroots level.
“The health and safety of the teams and players in our communities has never been more important and we’re proud to partner with Grassroots Football to deliver defibrillators to local venues across 100 UK cities.
“We look forward to supporting the roll out of this lifesaving equipment to help protect players, coaches and fans in case of emergency.”
To find out more about the Grassroots Defibrillator Programme and to apply, click here. To follow them on Twitter, click here.
This is an extract from our grassroots newsletter, Kick N Mix. To subscribe, visit the preference centre.
