South Park Raiders FC are the junior disability football section of South Park Rangers FC, an FA Charter Standard Community Club and amateur ability counts club. The tournament was staged at Goals Soccer Centre in Dartford and attracted 300 players from all over the south east of England.
The event was sponsored by FA Community Partner McDonald’s and Sir Geoff Hurst MBE was in attendance to kick off the under 16 game between England (Charlton Athletic Ability Counts FC) and Germany (South Park Raiders FC).
The Champions World Cup 2006 was organised to cater for the ever increasing number of junior pan disability football clubs. Thirty four teams from Kent, Sussex, Surrey, London, Hertfordshire, Essex and Middlesex all competed for the prestigious trophy. Each team became one of the countries competing in the World Cup in Germany this summer and wore the appropriately coloured T-shirt with the country’s name on the back. The tournament was run in two age groups under 11’s and under 16’s and all the matches were five-a-side and were played on state of the art third generation turf pitches. There was also a power chair football demonstration match with the students from Valence School in which England beat Germany, 4-1.
There were sixteen under 11’s teams arranged in four groups of four initially playing group games. The top two teams in each group progressed to the main cup competition and the bottom two teams played for the plate competition. The under 16’s was played with eighteen teams in three groups of six. After the group stages the top two teams went through along with the two best third placed teams. Each team was also assigned a Team Liaison Officer from the Leigh City Technology College students.
The winning teams were as follows;
- Under 11 Plate – Germany (Larkfield Youth DFC)
- Under 11 Cup – Argentina (Charlton Athletic Ability Counts FC)
- Under 16 Cup – Portugal (Brighton & Hove – The Seagulls Specials)
As with all tournaments the event was very competitive because no matter what ability, good competition is an important part of life. However, the focus was firmly on everyone taking part and having a lot of fun. Of course there were winners but the key factor was that 300 youngsters with varying disabilities all got to play football. Each player also received a medal and a McDonald’s goody bag for taking part.
Paul Dolan, Kent County FA Football Development Officer commented that “the tournament was a great success and was an integral part of the development of Junior Pan Disability football in England.” Indeed, FA representatives were in attendance at the tournament in order to gain evidence to develop the disability strand of the FA Long Term Player Development pathway.
For more information on the event or on disability football in Kent, please contact Paul Dolan on 01634 812 032 or email paul.dolan@kentfa.com.