h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've gone back to my old job, working shifts at Sport 24, and I'm on a late shift right now which unfortunately means I've just witnessed something pretty terrible.

In the middle of the second half of the Confederations Cup semi-final (Cameroon 1 Colombia 0, by the way) Marc-Vivien Foe suddenly collapsed. It looked pretty bad - his eyes were rolling into the back of his head - and they stretchered him off. He died shortly afterwards - apparently they took him to first aid and his heart stopped there.

Then I had to play the pictures up to Manchester for their regional news, knowing that the body on the stretcher was exactly that. There's something of a sombre air around the sport newsroom at the moment. I've never known anything like it.

Here's the Reuters agency copy:

LYON, France, June 26 (Reuters) - Cameroon midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe died on Thursday after collapsing during his country's Confederations Cup semi-final against Colombia.

Foe, who spent last season on loan at English premier league Manchester City from French club Olympique Lyon, was carried off on a stretcher after collapsing 15 minutes from the end of the match, won 1-0 by Cameroon.

Alfred Mueller, FIFA's Swiss medical officer for Lyon, told a news conference: "I have to give you very sad information. The player Marc-Vivien Foe has died.

"After he went off the pitch ... we took him to first aid, and the heart stopped in the first aid. The French doctors here did reanimation for 45 minutes and, during this 45 minutes, we had unfortunately absolutely no reaction.

"This is a very sad day for football, for FIFA and for the player's family. This is all we can say at the moment."

FIFA, who said there would be an autopsy to determine the circumstances of the death, later issued a statement saying Foe had "collapsed in around the 72nd minute without any particular event having happened in the course of the match.

"The player was transferred straight away to the medical unit of the Stage Gerland of Lyon. The doctors carried out cardiac reanimation for 45 minutes, without success."

It quoted FIFA's Swiss doctor Alfred Mueller as saying: "It is too soon to determine the exact causes of his death."

'FIFA SHOCKED'
FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who learned the news while at the Stade de France (for the second semi-final) at the same time as the France and Turkey teams and also the spectators, said in the statement: "FIFA and the whole family of football are shocked by this incredible tragedy.

"I would like to address in their name, to his family, to those close to him, to Cameroon football and to his club, our most sincere condolences and express all our support in this painful moment. Football has lost a remarkable player and man."

Chuck Blazer, head of the organising committee of the Confederations Cup, said he was shocked.

"I am stunned by the announcement of this loss. Marc Vivien Foe was one of the leaders of the Cameroon team which has sparkled since the start of the competition.

"This evening I am thinking about his family and those close to him."

Foe, 28, played 65 games for Cameroon and formerly played for West Ham United and RC Lens.

The powerful midfielder missed the 1998 World Cup through injury, but played in all three of Cameroon's games in last year's tournament.

He produced impressive form for Manchester City in the season just finished, but the club decided against paying Lyon seven million pounds ($11.65 million) to take him to England on a permanent basis.

A minute's silence was observed before the other semi-final in Paris.
France's goalkeeper Gregory Coupet, a Lyon team mate of Foe, appeared distraught at the news.

Sorry, that was supposed to be:

Thanks.

There isn't a stunned "smiley"....

I heard the news on the radio, and they were interviewing someone from West Ham, so I thought it was Glen Roeder....

Did you see the French goal celebrations? Henry (?) scored and then just looked upwards and pointed, and his teammates did the same...