Death by World Cup Fever: Chinese Fan Dies of Sleep Deprivation
Is there a thing such as "too much soccer"?
The World Cup is supposedly the greatest show on earth. One soccer fan from China took it way too seriously and died of sleep deprivation after watching the games in Brazil for consecutive nights.
“A Chinese fan has reportedly died after staying up for too many nights in a row to watch the World Cup.” states The Daily Mail on Tuesday.
The 25-year-old man from Suzhou, China was apparently found dead in-front of a TV set hours after Netherlands dominating win over Spain, 5-1 last Friday.
China is 11-12 hours ahead of parts of Brazil where the games are being played. The Netherlands-Spain match ended at around 5 a.m. in China (4 p.m. in Brazil).
Soccer fans from around Asia have to watch the games starting past midnight if they want to follow the games. The opening match of the day usually starts at 1 a.m. and ends at 9 a.m. with the regular three-game schedule.
According to the same article, this is not the first time that Chinese soccer fans have died because of “too much soccer”.
In Euro 2012, a fan spent 11 days watching each and every game of the tourney and died from exhaustion. In 2006 and 2010 World Cups, Chinese hospitals also admitted more patients than usual with “symptoms of exhaustion”
It was not mentioned in the report if the Chinese fan was rooting for La Furia Roja, which got completely bamboozled by the Oranje.