Cardiff City Deaf Football Club has received huge success at the UK’s biggest tournament for deaf-friendly youth football teams earlier this month, held by the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS).
Cardiff City Deaf FC’s is part of the Every Player Counts initiative, a Cardiff based disability football project which is the largest in Wales.
Their under-16 and under-12 teams travelled to Liverpool and were both victorious at the Northern Region of the National Deaf Youth Football Tournament.
The under-12s won their group, and went on to take the title, beating Everton Deaf FC in the final.
The South Wales club also clinched the under-16s trophy, defending their title from last year’s tournament, beating Derby RSD FC in the final, having won 7 out of their 8 group matches.
The competition is part of the NDCS Deaf Friendly Football Club project, which encourages junior football clubs of all sizes to open up their teams to deaf players.
Every Player Counts is delivered in partnership by Cardiff City Football Club and Sport.Cardiff and aims to get more disabled people involved in football.
Executive Member for Sport, Leisure and Culture, Cllr Nigel Howells said: “It is fantastic that the skills and determination of these teams have been recognised.
“The Every Player Counts initiative has made the provision of disability football more accessible for people across Cardiff and without the project opportunities such as this tournament could not be achieved.”
Hayley Jarvis, NDCS Inclusion Activities Manager, said: “We’d like to congratulate both teams on becoming deaf-football champions.
“Our tournament is a celebration of the football clubs and coaches who have succeeded in making football accessible to more than 1,000 deaf children, who otherwise wouldn’t be able to enjoy the sport.
“As we’ve seen at this weekend’s competition, involving deaf children in football is great for their confidence and social skills. We want to make sure that deaf young people have the same opportunities to take part in sports as any other children and encourage other clubs to take the NDCS Deaf-Friendly Pledge.”
Since the launch of Every Player Counts in October 2010 the programme has attracted over 500 attendees with ages ranging from 5 to 45 years and has 141 registered playing members participating in weekly impairment specific coaching sessions.
Groups include Downs Syndrome, physical disability, deaf, learning disability, wheelchair users, blind or visually impaired.
Clubs who want to find out about becoming accessible to deaf children, can email [email protected] or visit www.ndcs.org.uk/football for details.
