The founder of Scotland’s Amputee Football Association has called on the nation’s public to get behind the inaugural EAFF Nations League in October.
Hosting Group D of the competition, Scotland will be joined by the Netherlands, Albania, Azerbaijan and Kosovo in Fife in what will be the biggest international para-football tournament of its kind to take place in the country.
The matches will take place at Dalgety Bay Sports Centre and Ashley Reid, who is also chief executive of Scottish Para-Football, said: “We’d love for people to come along and support the team and indeed to get a flavour of this exciting and dynamic form of football.
“It’s an enormous coup for Scotland to be hosting an event such as this.
“It is probably the biggest sporting event for para football, disability football of its kind ever to be hosted in Scotland.
“We’ve got teams from countries across the world coming here and I very much hope we’ll put the spotlight on para football general in Scotland.
“It will be a big event. It’s testament to the growth of para football in Scotland, amputee football in Scotland, which was established over the last couple of years.
“We would love as many people as possible to come along over the course of the weekend and support this Scotland team.”
The Nations League is organised by the European Amputee Football Federation (EAFF) of which Amputee Football Association Scotland (AFAS) is a member.
The Scotland squad, made up of 11 individuals each with a lower or upper limb amputation, will face their international counterparts on October 26-29 and 15 matches will be played across three days.
Reid is looking for financial backing for the event which is set to cost the AFAS around £35,000.
She said: “We would be thrilled to discuss opportunities with anyone interested in becoming an event sponsor, or those able to support the event in any other ways.
“Anything with regards donations whether it be bottled water, or snacks, or sponsoring a player or with designing promotional stuff, any help at all, even volunteers.
“We literally are a charity operating with four volunteers.
“It is a huge event for us to pull off but we will do it.
“We hosted our first big international tournament, an invitational event, in November, where we had Belgium, Israel and Ireland over at the Oriam (Edinburgh) we did a great job.
“It was our first ever big tournament and it was fantastic. Hopefully we can really put on show and showcase amputee football at its best.”
Amputee Football Association Scotland was set up in 2017 to create opportunities for those with limb loss to participate in the game.
The organisation is now a game leader of Scottish para-football, the Scottish FA’s governing body for all forms of para-football in Scotland.
Eighteen sides will take part in the inaugural Amputee Football Nations League, with teams split into four divisions. Each division will play a tournament in a different location on a different date.
Scotland is a host nation, along with Poland, France and Belgium. The team in last place in each group will be relegated to the lower division, with the best team being promoted to the higher division.
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