A man in his 20s collapsed and was later confirmed dead immediately after watching the Super Eagles of Nigeria lose 2-1 to the Black Stars of Ghana in the quarter-final of the 2008 Nations Cup Monday, the private Guardian newspaper reported Tuesday. Quoting eyewitness account, the paper said the man, identified simply as Sunday, had just finished watching the match at a viewing centre in the South-west city of Abeokuta when he fell down as he was heading home. “We immediately rushed him to a nearby hospital and on getting there, we were told that he had died,” an eyewitness, Emma, told the paper. The Guardian said though the police claimed the tragedy was not formally reported to them, the hospital where the fan was taken for treatment, identified as Hope Hospital, confirmed the incident. Similar cases of death of soccer fans, resulting from shock, have been reported in the past in soccer-loving Nigeria, where fans have rioted over power outage during matches involving the national team.
