AMMAN — HRH Crown Prince Hussein on Monday launched the “Qusai Initiative” seeking to improve the performance of sports therapy staff, a month after a Faisali player died during a football match, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.
The initiative aims at bettering the capabilities of sport therapists on and off the field, creating programmes that can be implemented to ensure the safety of the players.
The initiative is named after Faisali’s Under-20 player Qusai Khawaldeh, who died in November during his team’s match with Al Jazeera after losing consciousness on the field.
Khawaldeh died of asphyxiation as his tongue blocked his airway when he fainted.
The Crown Prince met with the initiative’s preparatory committee and was briefed on the steps taken as part of the upcoming sport therapy strategy and the panel’s recommendations to be applied to sports fields and training centres.
Representatives from the education and health ministries, Prince Hussein Academy for Civil Protection, Royal Medical Services, Civil Defence Department, Jordan Olympic Committee, Higher Youth Council (HYC), Military Sport Federation and the Hashemite University attended the meeting.
Participants presented briefings on the different components of the initiative, including data collected from sports federations on the current situation of the physical therapy staff, the training sports therapists need to receive and the possibility of teaching sports therapy at the university level.
HYC Secretary General Atef Rweidan stressed the need for legislation obliging sports clubs to hire qualified physical therapy staff during matches to offer specialised treatment in case of injuries, adding that there are 28 sports federations, 340 sports clubs and more than 1,000 training centres in the Kingdom.
