Premier League Disability Football Festivals to champion inclusion

Young people representing Bradford City Disability FC are taking part in the Under-11-mixed and 14-16-year-old-mixed tournament at an end-of-season Disability Football Festival run and hosted by Middlesbrough Football Club Foundation, one of numerous tournaments at this year’s Premier League Disability Football Festivals.

More than 450 participants representing more than 50 professional football clubs are coming together at one of three festivals, hosted by Wolverhampton Wanderers, Middlesborough and Chelsea this summer, to celebrate the Premier League’s year-round commitment to providing access to football for all.

The pan-disability football festivals, delivered by club charities in partnership with the Premier League Charitable Fund, aim to create opportunities for players to develop their skills and confidence in a supportive environment, catering for the needs of people who are neuro-divergent and those who have sensory or physical disabilities.

Premier League Director of Community, Nick Perchard, said: “This year’s Premier League Disability Football Festivals, delivered in partnership with professional football club community organisations, offer a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the importance of football for everyone. 

“The festivals offer young people the opportunity to develop their technical ability and bring physical and social benefits, as players come together with young people from other clubs across England and Wales. Days like today help to remove barriers to participation and raise aspirations across the game.”

The Premier League Disability Football Festivals are a celebration of how the Premier League’s community programmes – Premier League Kicks, Premier League Inspires and Premier League Primary Stars – connect young people aged from five to 18 with football, providing positive opportunities to help them reach their potential.

This year’s Premier League Disability Football Festivals will see young people take part in a series of six-a-side games, activities and workshops. This builds on the success of last season’s festivals, which saw more than 450 young people representing 50 professional football club charities take part.

In addition to a series of tournament games, players will have the opportunity to participate in a range of additional activities across the three events, including football darts and basketball sessions, with workshops to support environmental sustainability and participants' mental health and resilience also available at each event.

Bradford City FC Community Foundation began its disability provision in 2017 and since then has supported hundreds of young people across teams from U12 to Open Age, with twelve different teams regularly training, playing and competing in tournaments across the programme. Training sessions are held weekly, and the Club’s teams have been enjoying a run of recent success, which have included recent tournament victories in the West Riding FA Ability and Junior Ability Counts leagues.

Paul Jubb, BCAFC Disability Football Manager, said: "We are really looking forward to the Premier League Disability Football Festival at Middlesborough. We have a mixed squad ability wise, but we will give it our best shot. The main thing is that the players enjoy the experience of playing against other disability teams across the region."

Through the Foundation’s Premier League Kicks programme, Bradford City Disability FC run a pan-disability football session every Sunday. A team formed from participants at this PL Kicks session will be representing the Disability team at Thursday’s tournament.

More than 20,000 participants who reported having a disability took part in Premier League programmes funded through the Premier League Charitable Fund in Season 2022/23, up 35 per cent on Season 2021/22.

To find out more about the Premier League’s inclusive community activities, please visit premierleague.com

About the Premier League 

The Premier League produces some of the most competitive and compelling football in the world. The League and its clubs use the power and popularity of the competition to inspire fans, communities and partners in the UK and across the world. The Premier League brings people together from all backgrounds. It is a competition for everyone, everywhere and is available to watch in 900 million homes in 189 countries.

About Premier League Kicks

Premier League Kicks inspires young people to achieve their potential and develop life skills with access to free weekly football and multi-sport, mentoring and education workshops, engaging more than 520,000 young people of all backgrounds and abilities over the last 16 years. More than 1m hours of free sessions have been delivered, with 90 professional football club community organisations currently delivering the programme. Of the 4,900+ delivery venues across England and Wales, more than half are in the top 30% most deprived neighbourhoods. More than 21,000 volunteers have helped on Kicks, 93% of whom are former participants, with 20% of the workforce former participants. Premier League Kicks alumni include Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling and Declan Rice. The Premier League has invested £81.6m into the programme, via the Premier League Charitable Fund.