25 Jan Disability Football and where we are today- Draft
My piece is a multimedia article that contains interviews from players and one of England CP footballs top head coaches. The purpose of this project is to create awareness of the lack of funding for disability football and the struggle that disability players have in finding football at their level and ability. I have explored the reasons for why funding has been removed from disability football. I have also found the impact that this has to players on a local level. Through my infographic I have broken down the numbers to show how many will be affecting if there is form of disability football in the future.
Pic: London Centre of Excellence Under 16 squad 2012-13 season
What do you know about disability football and how it has changed over the past six years?
Disability football has changed, no longer is it as accessible and well funded as it used to be. The results of this is, there are many people across the United Kingdom having to travel further to be able to play football with fellow players of the same ability. Why is this the case? Considering the fact, that football is a multi-million pound industry?
As you may already know, many league and non-league teams in English football have youth squads. But did you know that some of these football clubs also field disability teams, as well. The disability team normally plays football on astro-turf and play 5-a-side or 7-a-side. There is different types of disability football. One is Pan-disability, which means to play with other players with different abilities to yours. If players progress further to represent their counties, such as the London FA. They then start to play in games of their own disability category. This also remains the same if the player progress to play for England or other national teams.
According to The FA disability website their are 23 teams around London that represent mix disabilities and deaf squads. Through playing in these teams, players are able to progress onto playing for their counties and then the national squads. This a part of the disability pathways. See more in my infographic where the pathways are displayed on my website.
Infographic Link: http://newtonsfootball.co.uk/football-news/141/
Former England Cerebral Palsy Development Squad Head Coach Steve Bartlett explains why the decision to remove the funding for the senior squad from the Disability football pathway . “It was always the plan to withdraw the funding to make the programme hopefully sustainable. “. This did happen around the summer of 2015. After it was announced that the Tokyo Paralympics would not have The Football 7-a-side in The Games. A number of players, including myself decided to set up our own team and still compete in a CP regional league and tournament. Which took place once a month. We would also have to host a tournament as well.
We started our own London Cerebral Palsy team. We designed a logo, a kit and were able to find a venue close to areas we had pervious trained before and for a reasonable price. We worked out that if a large majority of the players who play for the London Centre of Excellence, continued to play for The London CP FC for the following season. Then we should have been able to remain financially stable going forward. However , due to different reasons players left the club or simply didn’t want to continue in disability football . There was other reasons for players deciding not to come back and play for the team. This all resulted in the team not generate enough money to pay for kits and for the training pitches. Due to the large amounts of debt the club generated, we could not continue forward into another season. Even though this is mainly the teams fault for what happened. I believe that with a bit more support in running the team and more opportunity in recruiting new players to the team. We could have generated enough players and money to maintain The London CP FC. Therefore folding and meaning that the only team that would be operating would be the Chelsea Disability Team.
Steve also gave his opinion on how he felt, in-regards to the decision to make the teams self-sustainable. “I think this actually happened earlier than planned (withdrawing the funding for the disability programme) as they felt the league/structure was not providing developing players for the senior squad. “ Steve believed that this was a bad decision. “If you look at a number of players who have played for the senior team in the last 3 years, I’m guessing but about 60% have progressed through the CP League format”. The question remain as to how the England team will provide players for the nation team going forward. The idea of only picking players from the under sixteens squads is the main idea going forward. The FA plan for disability football going forward for the next two years, is to have to National talent camps for 16 to 19 years olds and only have an under 21’s national squad. Preparing for the future but leaving a large group of players with to hopes of playing in disability football for their country.
Many clubs in the UK are all making large revenues, through kit sponsorships and television deals. In June 2017, the revenue figures for each Premier Club were released. Chelsea and Tottenham both had disability teams which both turned over a large profit. Chelsea turned over £368 Million and Tottenham turned over £306 Million. However after the restructure of the disability pathways, Tottenham decided to withdraw funding from the disability team. Leaving the London disability squad to self-sustain for the future.
If The FA and other club had continued to provide funding for both the under 16 teams and the senior teams as well, their would not only have been an opportunity for a new generation of player to play football, but also helped the older players to remain in a sport that helps them. Without funding both teams and players of this generation and the next. There is a real struggle for footballers with Cerebral Palsy to play a sport that they love and want to be able to play. What do players of todays generation do to play football? What struggle do they face to be able to play a sport that should be easily accessible to them?
Due to the decision to remove CP many players across the country were affected by the decision, including Samuel Kerriush and Louis Parfitt. Sam who also has Cerebral Palsy and told me the reasons and motives behind why he joined disability football. “(I join disability football) to try something new and see what other people with CP are like with football and go to some new places like the Soccerdome. (The indoor football facility that used to be at North Greenwich, London). Sam and myself had a number of opportunities to go to many different places and play football. One of them was the St. Georges Park, the England National training ground. All this was funded by The FA (The governing body of football in England). This is what Sam believes was the reason behind the change in Cerebral Palsy football. “I think funding was at the end and I think promises were made that couldn’t be kept mainly due to factors out of there control.”
Louis believes that it is for different reasons why the disability pathways were removed and leans more towards the idea of the England National team establishing a squad and having no real need for other players. “The way that I feel about CP football is now The FA has their England team, the rest (Of us) are just playing for the sake of it. They are more keen too get ex pros who have had brain injuries rather than someone who has CP from the start of their life.”
The point made by Louis is one that causes much anger and controversy amongst many of us within CP Football. The difference between a physical disability and a mental disability. Even though Cerebral Palsy is known as a physical disability, it is also a mental disability. This can affect people in different ways. Someone who is born with Cerebral Palsy may have the physical disadvantages that come with the disability, such as movement and muscle impairments. Whereas someone who is diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy through a head injury, as a fully developed adult, will not have the physical impairments of the disability and therefore are not impaired when they play. Therefore giving them a greater advantage in a tournament.
The official reasoning for why Football – 7s was removed from the Paralympics, had little to do with the theory of non physical impaired players playing in Football – 7s. In-fact the reason for why Cerebral Palsy was removed from The Paralympics , was due to them not being able to summit their bid to participate in The Games in time. The reason for this is because on January 1st 2015 Football – 7s, left CPISRA. The head governing body of Cerebral Palsy Football and started up their own governing body, International Federation of CP Football (IFCFF). The changes coming between the weekend of biding, resulted in The IPC not recognising the new governing body at the time that the biding was taking place. Therefore CP Football has no place in 2020 Paralympics.
The result of losing Football – 7s have had a knock on affect to the national and local level of football. I have also spoke to Brenda Osborne, who run the Charlton Athletic Ability Court, a local team pan disability football team. (Here the full interview in my radio package) Brenda spoke about trying to put players through the disability pathways. However this does not lead to much, as many of the regional teams are now folding. Much the same away as the London team did. Without progression and without anywhere to go forward, this leaves many players with no where to go to play football. For Louis CP Football meant “Everything to him and still does”. Even though Louis mentioned that “Football has been a chore”, Sam said “In terms of CP football yes, now we don’t have training sessions and only play in tournaments, often with 7 players and sometimes we don’t have enough to play fixtures so (we) have to forfeit.”
With no training and hardly enough competitive football, Sam and Louis are struggling to be find football that represents them. This should not be the case and as established before with the large sums of money in football, there should be enough to keep programmes like the Disability Pathways going.
Cerebral Palsy football has changed a lot over the past five years, and there is no telling what it will look like in the next five years. The more I think about what me and my fellow teammate had in CP Football, the more I worry about what CP football will look like in the next five years. Will there be any CP football ? With the rate CP being diagnosed in the UK . (Visit my info graphic for more information) There will still be a loop hole, to opportunities to find and discover talented footballers, simply because of a lack of funding and a disability.
Local Disability Football
Before many players make it to the national level, they first start at a local club. These are normally voluntarily run teams that train and compete in tournaments. They tailor the game to help players with a variety of needs. This is how many players, including myself and Sam, start off in disability football. However like the regional teams, local disability teams and leagues are under threat . In the radio package you will hear the struggles of running a local disability team. In the audio slideshow you will hear from the players who play for the Charlton Disability Community Trust team, as they express their feelings on what it is like to be apart of a team that helps them.
There is no telling what future will look like for disability football. There is very little football remaining and it seems what is left will not be around for very much longer. This will leave many people with a disability nowhere to go to play the game that they love. The idea of cutting costs and making teams self- sustainable are failing and the only group are suffering because of this, are the disability players themselves.
