WS More or Less: Are African football players more likely to die on the field?

More or Less: Behind the Stats

BBC

Business, Mathematics, Science, News Commentary, News

4.6 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2017

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Cheick Tiote, the much loved former Newcastle United player collapsed and died while training with Chinese side Beijing Enterprises earlier this month. His death and that of other black footballers have caused some commentators to ask – are African or black players more likely to die while playing than other people?

The data of footballers deaths is pretty poor but we try to glean some answers from the scant numbers available. It look like one of the most common causes of death among players on the pitch is cardiac arrest – son is this is a greater risk factor for people of African heritage?

We speak to statistician Dr Robert Mastrodomenico and Professor Sanjay Sharma, a specialist in sports cardiology.

Presented and produced by Jordan Dunbar and Charlotte McDonald

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.6	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.4	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable
0:14.3	experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC
0:20.4	makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:36.0	This is the BBC.
0:40.0	You've downloaded the short, wee compact version of more or less, which is the program that looks
0:47.1	at the numbers around us in the news and in life and sees what we can learn from them.
0:53.0	Enjoy the program.
0:56.0	Welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service.
0:59.0	I'm Jordan Dunbar.
1:00.0	And I'm Charlotte McDonald.
1:02.0	We have to start tonight's Five Life Sport with some very sad news,
1:06.2	and that's that the former Newcastle and Ivory Coast midfielder, Chette Teote,
1:10.9	has died aged just 30. He made over 150. The recent death of Chiek Teote from a heart attack brought an outpouring of sadness in the world of football.
1:20.0	When someone young and seemingly healthy dies it feels shocking and unusual.
1:25.0	And he's just the latest.
1:26.4	In the past few years there have been a litany of players who have died while on the pitch.
1:30.8	Cheek Teote, Dan Wilkinson, Gafano Tiro, Sergei Philip. pitch. Yom Nang, Patrick O'Keng, Bernardo, Stephen Petroski.
1:44.0	Perhaps the most high profile incidents involved two African players.
	...

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