Eken, presently a counsel at Turkish Super Lig club Hatayspor, was functioning as a football specialist at that point, and his close namesake Ekeng was one of the players with whom he was working. Cameroon worldwide midfielder Ekeng had as of late joined Dinamo Bucharest after his most memorable taste of La Liga football with Cordoba had finished in transfer, having spoken with Eken about a possible move to Turkey.
The 26-year-old had played 11 games for Dinamo when he fell off the seat in an association game against Viitorul Constanta. Notwithstanding, minutes in the wake of taking to the field, he experienced a heart failure, imploding on the pitch and biting the dust that very evening.
In the years since, Eken - who actually has instant messages from the footballer on his telephone - has put forth attempts to change football's capacity to manage health related crises. Yet again he has had contact with FIFA, as well as an opportunity meeting with the association's boss Gianni Infantino, while episodes, for example, Christian Eriksen's breakdown at Euro 2020 have brought the issue into more keen concentration.
"I heard from writers first, they, advised me to watch the match right away, to really look at the news, and I was terrified," Eken tells Mirror Football . "At the point when I figured out what occurred, I heard that he was in the clinic and he couldn't talk, he was dropped after a heart failure. I was messaging him to say 'if it's not too much trouble, let me know, would you say you are alright?'
"I messaged his better half, I got no reaction. After that I was getting a few calls and the following day I loaded up the main trip to Romania. On my way I was thinking for what reason is it working out, and for what reason isn't anybody making some kind of difference either way it."
As per a recent report named 'FIFA Sudden Death Registry (FIFA-SDR): a planned, observational investigation of unexpected passing in overall football from 2014 to 2018', it was resolved that 617 footballer passings had been credited to heart failures during the period being referred to. The report zeroed in on passings "during or in the span of 1 hour in the wake of preparing (all coordinated games exercises for football players) and contests," as opposed to footballers who passed on from respiratory failures experienced beyond footballing exercises.
Eken knew about other cardiovascular passings in football, including Marc-Vivien Foe at the 2003 Confederations Cup, however it wasn't long after Ekeng's demise that he found the full degree. It was at this stage that he set forward the possibility of offices inside arenas which would permit staff to treat players quickly as opposed to depending on moving them to the closest emergency clinic. For Ekeng's situation, the specialist who took him to the medical clinic was subsequently given a suspended prison sentence after it was found that she made no endeavor to revive him during the excursion.
At that point, Eken was learning at Real Madrid 's graduate school, and integrated a portion of these thoughts into his postulation. He conceived the Eken'g Rule, which - notwithstanding the in-arena offices - drifted drone ambulances, and was in touch with Jiri Dvorak, at the time a teacher with FIFA.
I composed a letter to FIFA and they responded to me - they said they felt a debt of gratitude yet they previously had sufficient strategies to forestall passings on the field," Eken says. "I regard [that] however I actually suggested they reevaluate this.