A Chinese football fan died after going 11 nights without sleep as he tried to watch every single kick of the ball of Euro 2012, The Daily Mail reported.

Jiang Xiaoshan, said to be supporting England and France in the tournament, died of exhaustion on Tuesday morning.

Because of the time difference, he reportedly stayed up each night with friends and then went to work the following day.

Friends said the news of his death came as a shock, as he lived a 'relatively healthy life', and had played football for his university team just a couple of years before.

Sources said, however, that the effect of alcohol and tobacco, combined with the chronic exhaustion, was to blame for his death as it weakened his immune system.

It is not the first time a Chinese football fan has suffered from trying to keep up with their on-pitch heroes.

During the Germany 2006 and South Africa 2010 World Cups reports surfaced of people being admitted to hospital after their bodies broke down from not sleeping.

Sleep deprivation from playing online video games is a huge problem in South Korea.

Earlier this year video game addicts in the country were told they could have the amount of time they spend playing limited to just four hours per day.

The country's government said it was looking at introducing a 'Cooling Off' system to regulate the time students play in a 24-hour period.

It wants to stamp out online bullying, and stem a number of suicides attributed to internet and video game addiction.

Their game will switch off after two hours, where they will be given a 10 minute rest, and can then only log again in once for a maximum two hours in the following 24 hours

It follows the Shutdown Law, passed in November, which bans gamers under the age of 16 from playing between midnight and 6am.

Fears are growing in South Korea that rampant gaming will lead to more deaths if the system is not introduced.

In February, in Taiwan, a young gamer lay dead in an internet cafe for nine hours before anyone noticed.

Chen Rong-yu, 23, was thought to have suffered a heart attack after playing League of Legends for 23 hours straight.

He was apparently still sat on the chair with his hands stretched out in front of the keyboard as if he was still playing in the cafe in New Taipei City.