Yesterday marked a fantastic milestone within the County, as it was finally the opening fixture day of the new Coventry & Warwickshire Pan-Disability Football divisions.

11 teams represented 6 clubs, which resulted in having over 65 children playing who have a range of disabilities and impairments. Attleborough Juniors, Coundon Court, Coventrians, Coventry Saracens, Rugby Borough Juniors, and Unity Sports Club were the clubs who featured in this first day of fixtures, played at the fantastic venue of the Alan Higgs Centre in Coventry. The players spent an afternoon playing the sport they love whilst representing a team that they train with recreationally on a regular basis. For some, this is the first time they’ve ever played in a team and the feedback we were given was truly emotional. Here are a few comments after the first day:

“One of our mums saw her son lining up for our team pic and promptly burst into tears. He’d always wanted to be in his own team”.

“21 years coaching, today has topped that off, I loved every minute and getting a hug off one of the players who doesn’t like contact, WOW… Now that’s what football should be about”.

“Thankyou so much for today from everyone at Unity Sports Club. We had players who have never had the chance to play and have said it was like Christmas Day for them”

Ryan Kimberley, the Disability Football Development Officer at Birmingham County Football Association stated “It has been an incredible journey! Since taking the role in January, I was told this was a priority within my work programme as sadly we haven’t been able to get anything like this set up within the Coventry area for disability provision for many years, and yesterday was a credit to all the hard work we have all done building up to get such a fantastic opening day. We have many people to thank, including the Coventry & Warwickshire Youth League for taking on such a special opportunity.

Everybody who came out thoroughly enjoyed their afternoon regardless of any results - just to see their children play was the only thing that mattered. There hasn’t been an opportunity for these children to play in a disability league until now, so its amazing to see the excitement on some of the children’s faces. It was truly heart-warming and a memory that they will cherish for many years to come”.

The Coventry & Warwickshire Youth League now consists of 2 Pan-Disability divisions; an U12s division where children aged 8-11 played against each other and an U16s division where children aged 12–15 played against each other. These fixtures will now take place monthly and then to continue growing into next season.

If you have a team for children with disabilities and you are interested in joining this league, please reach out to ryan.kimberley@birminghamfa.com.