The Muamba effect

Generally described as over paid and ungrateful, the footballers of today have not created the best reputation for themselves. Most press coverage of the sport focuses more heavily on the scandals surrounding the players, as opposed to the actual football they are playing. Even if you don’t know anything about the actual game, chances are you are very familiar with the Luis Suarez racism incident, John Terry’s affair with Wayne Bridge’s girlfriend, and just about every detail of David Beckham’s life (including what underwear he is wearing). So considering how often we hear stories about the bad behaviour of these men, it was slightly refreshing to hear of them all coming together at a time of crisis.

As a sport that is closely followed and reported by many, it didn’t take long for the world to be informed of the collapse of 23 year old Bolton midfielder, Fabrice Muamba on the 17^th of March. Shocked team mates watched on as the man they had been kicking a ball about with just minutes earlier lay lifeless, face down on the grass. Panic quickly took over White Hart Lane, where the match was being played, as the seriousness of the situation gradually became clear. Paramedics rushed on to the field and gave mouth to mouth resuscitation, before rushing him off the field to hospital. It later transpired that Muamba was ‘effectively dead’ for a whole 78 minutes before medics were able to get his heart beating again. For anyone of such a young age to suffer a cardiac arrest is shocking enough, but for the incident to occur in such a public way, provoked mass shock and hysteria across the footballing world.

The huge amount of support that followed the event could not have been anticipated, with rival teams suddenly forgetting their battles and posting encouraging messages for the player, with #prayforMuamba trending worldwide.

It seemed that it did not matter what team you played for, that for once the boundaries became blurred and showing you cared became the priority. Not only were messages sent via Twitter, several teams showed their respect by taking part in a period of applause for the player before matches kicked off, and others wore shirts with encouraging messages. Even players in different countries were moved enough to have the name printed on their shirts, one of the most famous being Crisitano Ronaldo, who is currently playing for Real Madrid.

As much as other teams did their bit to show support, no one did more than the Bolton fans themselves, demonstrating a spectacular mosaic display in dedication to the player, and both the Bolton and opposition fans, turning up wearing shirts with ‘MUAMBA’ on the back. 

Fans from across the country fled to White Hart Lane, where Muamba collapsed, and his home ground to lay flowers and leave inspirational messages for the player and his family. It would seem that the family truly were grateful for the prayers and general support from the nation, as they publicly issued their thanks on twitter.

Even fans of local rivals, Manchester United, left messages.. Shame they couldn’t get his name right though.

However, despite the football world putting up a united front, it would seem the general public weren’t quite playing fair..

Enter Liam Stacey. Whilst many twitter users jumped on the #prayformuamba bandwagon in an attempt to gain more followers, or in a shameless attempt to get a retweet from a top footballer, this youth took things further. After openly mocking the player’s collapse, Stacey followed this already unacceptable behaviour with a series of racial slurs, later claiming that his twitter account had been hacked, oh so very conveniently..

Stacey has now been sentenced to 56 days in jail as a punishment for his ridiculous comments, and has acted as a warning for the rest of the twitter world that think it’s acceptable to send out tweets full of hate, (obviously anything directed at Piers Morgan is an exception to this rule).

However, ignoring Liam Stacey and his childishness, this incident really did give me a bit more faith in humanity, in football anyway. Pictures of players turning up at the hospital to support the man they play against on a regular basis, fans shedding a tear during dedicatory applause, the footballing world truly was captivated by the collapse of this young man. Luckily, it would appear that our prayers were indeed answered, as Muamba seems to be well on his way to recovery, sitting up in hospital, responding to questions and moving his arms and legs. His recovery has been described by doctors as ‘nothing short of miraculous’.

The picture was tweeted by Fabrice’s fiancee Shauna, who said: "Fab wanted me to post this pic for you all and to also say thank you for such overwhelming support."

Even though it took such a great tragedy to unite the footballing community, it did prove to us that it can happen, and maybe this is something that will keep being proven to us, although hopefully in less life threatening circumstances..