Family of severely injured Ajax player Nouri reach compensation agreement with club
The family of former Ajax player Abelhak Nouri reached an agreement with the Amsterdam football club for compensation after Nouri sustained severe and permanent brain damage during a football match in 2017, NOS reported.
Nouri suffered a heart arrhythmia during a match against Werder Bremen in Austria on July 8, 2017. The then 20-year-old was rushed to intensive care, but experts said he would not have suffered extensive brain damage if a defibrillator had been on sight during the game. Nouri still requires 24-hour care and can only communicate with facial expressions.
General manager Edwin van der Sar admitted in a press conference one year later that the club was liable for the injuries Nouri sustained."If the defibrillator had been deployed, this would have shown that resuscitation could start," Van de Sar said, according to the newspaper. "If that had been done, Abdelhak might have come out better," Van der Sar said at the time."
The young Ajax player was known as a talented player with much potential.
"The shortcomings led to Abdelkah becoming permanently dependent on the care of others and he was not able to see how his promising career as a football player would develop," the family lawyers John Beer and Lucas Hogeling said earlier this, according to NOS.
His family has been fighting for four years for a compensation agreement with Ajax. The costs include healthcare expenses, the loss of Nouri's potential income as a professional player and immaterial damages. The exact amount will not be publicized.