By Andrew Warshaw
September 7 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter has written to the Swedish Football Association (SvFF) to express his regret following the death of 29-year-old striker Victor Brännström, the latest footballer to collapse on the field of play.
Brännström (pictured top and below, right) had just scored for Piteå against Umedalens in their Division Two North match when he collapsed after a suspected cardiac arrest and was rushed to hospital where he died.
Blatter described Brännström as “a young man with his whole life before him” and promised that FIFA was doing everything it could to avoid the repetition of such tragic incidents.
“FIFA is continuing to make every effort to investigate the cause of tragic incidents such as the case of Victor and prevent them from occurring in the future, and at the same time is giving the highest priority to improving emergency medicine of the field of play,” wrote Blatter.
Brännström’s death evoked chilling reminders of what happened to 24-year-old Bolton Wanderers midfielder Fabrice Muamba, who made worldwide headlines after recovering despite his heart stopping for 78 minutes during a cup game at Tottenham Hotspur in March.
He was recently forced to retire from football
Brännström was jogging back to his team’s half of the pitch when he fell to the ground.
The match was abandoned as medics tried to revive him.
According to the Swedish news agency TT, Brännström had collapsed in training earlier this year and took a break from the sport to undergo medical tests but returned after doctors found nothing wrong.
Christer Berglund, Piteå spokesman, said: “We can’t undo what’s been done.
“He was a healthy and damn nice guy with a wife and two kids.
“It’s horrible and traumatic.”
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