We are delighted to announce that the first International Amputee Football fixture in over three years is taking part on Saturday 1st September 2018 as England face Ghana at Reaseheath College.
The England Amputee Football Association (EAFA) is a charity which supports individuals with amputations of limb deficiencies participate in playing football regardless of ability, age or gender. EAFA has a variety of programmes which support the differentiation of each individual wishing the play the sport of Amputee Football.
One of the major programmes which EAFA delivers is the England Senior Squad. This programme is part of EAFA’s elite performance pathway and enables the best players throughout the country to represent England at major International tournaments along with regularly competing in International friendlies/tournaments. The team has had previous success on the World stage, winning the WAFF World Cup in 1988, 1989 and 1990 and also most recently coming runners up at the EAFF European Championships in 2017.
The England team this year are looking to go one better than last year and emulate the stars of the 1980’s who successfully won the WAFF World Cup. This years WAFF World Cup is taking place in Guadalajara, Mexico and begins at the end of October 2018.
The squad for the past two years has been incredibly supported by Simply Business who have donated £30,000 this year alone to supporting the teams tournaments, training weekends, training kit, match kit, equipment and much more. The charity have also had key partners such as; Reaseheath College, The CSP, The Soccer Store, McLellan, Mark Harrod, LAJ Photography, Soccer Supplement, Crewe Lifestyle Centre & Bio Synergy. Despite all this amazing support the team/charity unfortunately, through no fault of their own are not supported by any National Governing Body (e.g The FA) which means all players and staff had to raise £1,500 to represent the Three Lions.
Fiona McSwein, Chief Customer Officer of Simply Business, said: “It is a privilege for Simply Business to continue our partnership with The EAFA. The charity are on a mission to transform the participation of amputee football across the country, whilst also producing the world’s best national team. That’s a huge inspiration for us, and together we will continue to flip perceptions of amputee sport. Seeing the national team come so close to winning the Euros was agonising but we’re confident they can go all the way in Mexico!”
The International friendly between England and Ghana will take place at 12:30pm on Saturday 1st September at Reaseheath College, Nantwich. The team will participate in this fixture along with a closed doors friendly in the evening again against Ghana before turning their attention to an important warm-up tournament the following week in Warsaw, a competition which the team won last year defeating the hosts 1-0 in the final.
Owen Coyle, EAFA Head Coach, said: “We are delighted to showcase the sport at home for the first time in over three years. The team have an huge abundance of talent and are considered one of the best teams in the world and are facing a strong, physical and talented team in the form of Ghana, it should make for a classic encounter. We want to thank everyone for their support and donations which is why we wanted to ensure we played a match on English soil ahead of the World Cup. We would love to see as many faces getting behind the team once again in Nantwich on the 1st September.”
