UEFA has been slammed by supporters after failing to recognise the seriousness of the injury sustained by Barnabas Varga in Hungary's win over Scotland.
Varga was knocked unconscious in a sickening collision with Scotland goalkeeper Angus Gunn and is now in hospital after undergoing surgery. He suffered multiple fractures to his face and a concussion and was put into the recovery position by his worried team-mates who responded quickly.
Hungary’s players gathered around him to ensure privacy before sheets were brought out to shield Varga. But before that moment, fans around the world were shown live footage of the severely injured player lying on the turf.
As BBC presenter Gabby Logan explained, that was because UEFA is in charge of directing the TV broadcast. European football’s governing body was subsequently bombarded with heavy criticism from fans, who noted the parallel with when Denmark player Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest at Euro 2020.
One fan tweeted: “UEFA have learnt nothing from Eriksen three years ago. Zooming in on Varga straight away is pretty disgraceful.” Another wrote: “Shocking from UEFA that they chose to show a replay of the Barnabas Varga injury! Credit to the Hungary players who signalled he was in trouble early on and urged the medical staff onto the pitch. Hopefully, the broadcasters can learn again from this and take action much quicker.”
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“Truly do not understand why whoever at UEFA thought it was a good idea to do a replay on that incident before we have any news on if Varga is OK or not,” one commenter wrote. Another added: “Thank god Varga is stable but how absolutely disgusting from UEFA to replay the clip of the incident”.
Speaking in the aftermath of the game on BBC One, Logan said: "All of our thoughts are of course with Barnabas Varga after that sickening collision. We are updating you on his condition. At the moment we have no more. We were as shocked as you when they replayed that incident.
Barnabas Varga was caught by Angus Gunn's elbow (Masashi Hara/Getty Images)"There are protocols around this kind of thing after Christian Eriksen three years ago. We were very surprised that UEFA chose to play in that replay, which is why we cut away to a wide angle as soon as we could."
Mirror Football has contacted UEFA for comment. Following criticism from Dominik Szoboszlai over the reaction from the medical staff, UEFA released a statement on Monday.
It read: "With regards to the medical intervention following the head injury suffered by Barnabás Varga of Hungary, we would like to clarify that the intervention of the team doctor happened within 15 seconds of the incident, followed immediately by the second stadium doctor, to conduct a first assessment of the injury and provide appropriate treatment, as per customary medical procedures.
“The qualified pitchside emergency team were waiting pitchside, according to their protocol, and arrived with the stretcher as soon as their intervention was requested by the medics to evacuate the player for his immediate transfer to hospital. The coordination between all the medical staff on site was professional and everything was done in accordance with the applicable medical procedures. There was no delay in the treatment of and assistance to the player."
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