Schmeichel: UEFA threatens Denmark with a suspension if they don’t finish the match after Eriksen’s collapse

When Christian Eriksen collapsed against Finland on Saturday, time stood still at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen. Everyone was just praying for Eriksen to wake up, no one cared about football at that moment. Except for UEFA officials, who, according to Peter Schmeichel, forced the Danes to start again.

Traumatic moments were experienced by the Danish players on Saturday afternoon at the stadium in Copenhagen. They had to watch as their friend Christian Eriksen, according to the doctors, left the world for a while before he was revived with a defibrillator.

Although they were in tears themselves, they heroically created a screen around their teammate to prevent the footage from reaching the media. When Eriksen was able to be revived, the totally traumatized players retired to the booths.

At that moment, no one was thinking about football. The wish of people all over the world was that Christian would wake up. After that happened and the Danish footballer was rushed to the hospital, he sent a message to his teammates that he was fine.

So the match was played that evening, according to UEFA’s organisation, at the players’ request. But this is now refuted by Peter Schmeichel, the legendary Danish goalkeeper and father of the current Denmark number one.

“I have seen the official letter from UEFA that the players insisted on playing the match. But I know that’s not true. Or so they see their truth,” Schmeichel told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

“They were given three options. One was to start playing immediately and finish the remaining 50 minutes. The other was to come in tomorrow and finish the game at 12 in the morning. And the third option was to forfeit the match and lose 0:3,” said Schmeichel.

“So you can make up your own mind. Was it the players’ wish to finish? Did they even have a choice? I don’t think so,” the legendary Manchester United goalkeeper fired back at Uefa.

“As you can hear from yesterday’s press conference, the coach really regrets letting the players back on the pitch.”

And indeed. Captain Simon Kjaer, whose heroic actions saved Eriksen’s life, had to make a substitution just after the start of the second half because he could not handle the mental pressure.

Football is a beautiful thing, but when it comes to health, any sporting struggle should be put aside. Unfortunately, UEFA doesn’t think about that often enough.

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