AIFF Futsal Invites Special Athletes To Kick-start Inclusion In Sports

AIFF Futsal invites Special Athletes to kick-start inclusion in sports (Image Source: IANS)

In all 20 athletes from Special Olympics Bharat will combine with players of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), for the second edition of the AIFF Hero Futsal Club Championship 2022-23, adding a new perspective to the event to be held at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall, Indira Gandhi Stadium Complex, here.

Before the competition, a coaches' training oriented about 30 participants with Special Olympics Unified Sports and inclusion of the athletes with Intellectual Disabilities in the sports field and beyond.

The Unified Futsal Championship (7-a-side) was played for over an hour between teams that combined players with and without Intellectual Disabilities.

Victor Hermans, FIFA Technical Consultant & legendary Futsal player, graced the event alongside several distinguished guests

In the words of Savio Medeira, Director, Coach Education: "we are also looking at Unified Football as a topic to be included in our official AIFF E Certificate Coaching Course in the immediate future.

"The E Certificate is our entry-level coaching course which focuses on Life Skills and Human Values along with introducing the basics of Football Coaching to first-timers and is undertaken by thousands of coaches every year on a pan-India level," he was quoted as saying in a release.

In the words of M.M Khurram, Unified Sports Coach, SO Bharat: "Collaboration with AIFF would be a giant leap towards spreading awareness and inclusion through sports at the grassroots level."

"People often understand Special Olympics to be a sports program for persons with Intellectual Disability only, but being a global inclusion movement we invite the players without intellectual disability to join our athletes in the sports field and through this engagement, we feel that we can nurture a culture of positivity and build communities of acceptance," he said.

Team sports bring people together. Special Olympics Unified Sports® teams do that, too and much more. About 1.4 million people worldwide take part in Unified Sports, breaking down stereotypes about people with intellectual disabilities in a really fun way.

"People often understand Special Olympics to be a sports program for persons with Intellectual Disability only, but being a global inclusion movement we invite the players without intellectual disability to join our athletes in the sports field and through this engagement, we feel that we can nurture a culture of positivity and build communities of acceptance," he said.

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