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CANNES
VEE-REVIEW
NEWSDESK
VEE-TALENT
Deaf football | Find out more
As the football season draws to a close, VEE-TV visited
the Queens Park Rangers football stadium in west London for a special training
session. Why? Because British deaf football is on top of the world!
In the 2005 Deaflympics in Montreal, Canada, earlier
this year, Great Britain beat Iran 2–1 and won the gold medal. Before
that, they'd beaten Germany 4–1, Turkey 4–1, Ireland 2–0,
Australia 5–1 and Greece 2–0.
And it's definitely not just the men either! The women's team beat Norway 3–1,
then drew 3–3 with Denmark and thrashed Australia 5–0! Sadly they
lost their final game 0–3 against the USA.
Bright future?
At the QPR ground we chatted to Phil Gardner, the manager of the men's deaf
Great Britain team, and Chris Gywnn, the coach.
Phil's family has a long sporting history. His dad played in goal for Lewisham
Deaf Football Club on his 75th birthday! Phil himself played for nine years
with Lewisham DFC and has played for the last 10 with Luton DFC.
So what does the success of the Great Britain team mean for the future of deaf
football? 'The medals in themselves are great publicity,' Phil says, 'and with
events like today I think the clubs here have a very healthy future.'
'We've got a lot of very good young players coming through,' Chris Gywnn added,
'and there's a lot of interest throughout the country. We want to bring those
players on – maybe by starting an under-21 team. But it depends on support
and how much funding we can get.'
Confused?
So what is the official situation? The English Football Association (FA) provides
funding for the England deaf team. But this team isn't recognised by the CISS
(International Committee Sports for the Deaf) so can't it compete in the Deaflympics.
The Great Britain team can compete, but it lacks funding because football is
organised and funded on a national basis in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern
Ireland, and so their respective Football Associations are only interested in
funding their own national deaf teams.
Meanwhile, UK Deaf Sport says it wants to ensure that the various national teams
are allowed to take part in competitions such as the Deaflympics that have so
far only been open to the GB teams.
Confused? So are we.
For more about how you can get involved in playing football yourself, see Find
out more.
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