Jesper Moller attacked the organizers of the Euro, who resumed the Denmark-Finland match after the Danish player’s heart failure. He’s asking for a change in the rules.
After fear, anger. The president of the Danish Football Association on Wednesday asked UEFA for a change in its rules on rescheduling of matches, criticizing the way in which the Denmark-Finland Euro meeting had resumed despite the heartache of Danish leader Christian Eriksen.
“It was the wrong decision and it was completely unacceptable that the players had to go on the pitch so soon after this horrible experience”, Jesper Moller said in a statement from the federation, joining the criticisms of the players and the coach since the defeat (0-1) against the Finns.
“Players and coaches shouldn’t be put in this situation, because it shouldn’t be their decision”, he stressed. For the president of the Danish federation, who said he was ready to make a proposal to UEFA, “We need to consider changing the rules so that we never end up in the same situation again.”
“With the greatest respect”
UEFA, which said on Tuesday “To have treated the case with the greatest respect vis-à-vis the sensitive situation and the players”, had given the choice to the players to finish the meeting Saturday evening or to continue it Sunday noon, but had denied having threatened a defeat on the green carpet in the event of refusal.
According to its statutes, “If a match cannot be played or can only be partially played, the whole or the remaining period of the match is, in principle, played the next day”. But these also provide for a minimum of forty-eight hours rest between meetings.
On Saturday, towards the end of the first half of the game, Eriksen collapsed abruptly on the pitch at Parken in Copenhagen. Rescued after a heart massage, he regained consciousness before being taken to hospital.
The Danish playmaker posted a photo on social media on Tuesday of himself, his face tired but smiling, on his hospital bed, saying go “good” given the circumstances.
The previous Dortmund
Four years ago, the Dortmund players were placed in a similar position to the Danes after the attack on their team’s bus. Just before their Champions League match against Monaco on April 11, 2017, explosives damaged the vehicle and Spaniard Marc Bartra was injured in the wrist by shards of glass.
Still shocked, the players had to play the match the next day, against their will. They had finally been eliminated.
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