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How To Win the Cerebral Palsy World Football Championships



Official Old Man

Uckfield Seagull
Aug 27, 2011
8,486
Brighton
Starts June 16th at 1pm with England V Japan. All games played at the FA's national centre, . England are in a group of four teams including Iran. Iran have not been permitted visas to enter the country, One down two to go. Now how do we get rid of Brazil & Argentina.
Incidentally, it is feasible to play 6 games, lose them all, come bottom of your league and still reach the final round.
http://www.cp2015.com/
 


Official Old Man

Uckfield Seagull
Aug 27, 2011
8,486
Brighton
OK so my post was taking the mickey, not out of the players but the format of playing so many games and getting rid of opposition by banning them from the country. No offence meant.
Then I watched the game live on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TPx0Dv78Ck&feature=youtu.be) rewind to the start for the game.
7 a side, smaller pitch, 30 mins a half. England V Japan was a bit one sided and the footie was pretty good.
 






hans kraay fan club

The voice of reason.
Helpful Moderator
Mar 16, 2005
61,088
Chandlers Ford
'FOOTBALL' + 'WORLD' + 'CHAMPIONSHIP'
Maybe we should support our team, until they lose that is.
Incidentally, official web site shows the final score as 2:0 maybe they wont show more than two goals.

Seriously - its an intrinsic problem with disability sport presented as elite sport. It can never be 'fair' unless every participent suffers exactly the same degree of disability, which will never be the case. I saw the scores of this game coming in on twitter via the @England account. England were 9-0 up after 28 minutes. Embarrassing for the winners, humiliating for the losers, and pretty uncomfortable for the spectators.

Credit to the England management who seemingly took steps to ease off a bit.
 




Gullflyinghigh

Registered User
Apr 23, 2012
4,279
Seriously - its an intrinsic problem with disability sport presented as elite sport. It can never be 'fair' unless every participent suffers exactly the same degree of disability, which will never be the case. I saw the scores of this game coming in on twitter via the @England account. England were 9-0 up after 28 minutes. Embarrassing for the winners, humiliating for the losers, and pretty uncomfortable for the spectators.

Credit to the England management who seemingly took steps to ease off a bit.

A fair point, and it has to have been utterly awful for the losers, but then what's the alternative?

There should be competitions/tournaments for players of all abilities to have a crack at and, ideally, it'd be a level playing field for all involved but this seems to be the best solution for now , despite the obvious flaws...
 


Triggaaar

Well-known member
Oct 24, 2005
49,984
Goldstone
Seriously - its an intrinsic problem with disability sport presented as elite sport. It can never be 'fair' unless every participent suffers exactly the same degree of disability, which will never be the case.
It's not always so one sided as that football match. The points system of classification works well in wheelchair rugby and there can be some very close competitive games. I'm not sure how they diagnose CP for all the football players, but their CP seems to be very mild.
 


hans kraay fan club

The voice of reason.
Helpful Moderator
Mar 16, 2005
61,088
Chandlers Ford
It's not always so one sided as that football match. The points system of classification works well in wheelchair rugby and there can be some very close competitive games. I'm not sure how they diagnose CP for all the football players, but their CP seems to be very mild.

Its a very difficult and very delicate subject. Some things like wheelchair rugby are not so difficult, because the qualification is that all players are confined to a wheelchair - that's a pretty even base to start with. Similarly with blind athletics or swimming the impairment is constant (partially sighted athletes are allowed in some variations, but they wear a blackout mask, to level the field, as it were).

Something like CP is different, as every sufferer will be subject to a unique degree of impairment. The danger is that the winners will simply be the most able, rather than the most talented - which is unfair on the losers and also to the winners, if that is the perception.

I'm not sure I'm explaining my viewpoint on this terribly well, to be honest.
 




Goldstone1976

We Got Calde in!!
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patreon
Apr 30, 2013
13,763
Herts
Its a very difficult and very delicate subject. Some things like wheelchair rugby are not so difficult, because the qualification is that all players are confined to a wheelchair - that's a pretty even base to start with. Similarly with blind athletics or swimming the impairment is constant (partially sighted athletes are allowed in some variations, but they wear a blackout mask, to level the field, as it were).

Something like CP is different, as every sufferer will be subject to a unique degree of impairment. The danger is that the winners will simply be the most able, rather than the most talented - which is unfair on the losers and also to the winners, if that is the perception.

I'm not sure I'm explaining my viewpoint on this terribly well, to be honest.

Actually, I think you've done a decent enough job at explaining your view. It is, as you say, a very tricky subject, but I agree that assessing what the categories of disablement should be in the first place must be hard. Then, putting athletes into the "correct" band must be nigh on impossible - made harder by the fact that some athletes (or their coaches) may well underplay the disability in order to maximise their chance of medalling. Assessing the "degree" of CP-ness must be ridiculously hard.

And yet, as [MENTION=24420]Gullflyinghigh[/MENTION] says, it's important to at least try to get a level playing field to validate the competition.

Turning to the specific game in question, it's hard to be sure whether a 14-0 scoreline (even with one side easing off) reflects poor assessment of the degree of disability or just one side being miles better than another. After all, if BHAFC first team played a team that had 11 players of my quality in it, I'd be pretty happy if I only lost 14-0.
 


Triggaaar

Well-known member
Oct 24, 2005
49,984
Goldstone
Some things like wheelchair rugby are not so difficult, because the qualification is that all players are confined to a wheelchair - that's a pretty even base to start with.
That's not the case, as some of the wheelchair rugby players are much more able than others, hence the points system. They could use a points system with CP footy too, I don't know what they've tried so far.
 


hans kraay fan club

The voice of reason.
Helpful Moderator
Mar 16, 2005
61,088
Chandlers Ford
That's not the case, as some of the wheelchair rugby players are much more able than others, hence the points system. They could use a points system with CP footy too, I don't know what they've tried so far.

Fair enough. I'll read up on their points system.
 




hans kraay fan club

The voice of reason.
Helpful Moderator
Mar 16, 2005
61,088
Chandlers Ford
This is the qualification for this event:

The game is played with modified FIFA laws such as a smaller pitch, seven players on each team, no offside law and with underarm throw-ins permitted. Matches consist of two 30-minute halves with a half-time period of 15 minutes.

Players competing in 7-a-side football are given a classification based upon their level of disability. There are four eligible classes:
FT 5: Athletes have hypertonia or spasticity in both lower limbs and to some degree in both upper limbs; the players have difficulty running, turning and stopping because of a lack of lower limb control
FT 6: Athletes are affected by coordination and balance problems in all four limbs and trunk; athletes typically have difficulties in dribbling the ball when running, acceleration and stopping
FT 7: Athletes with hemiplegia, meaning that only one side of their body is affected, causing the players to walk and run with a limp; on the impaired side, the athlete might have problems balancing
FT 8: This sport class describes the minimum impairment eligible for 7-a-side football; you may not see the impact of impairment when watching the athlete run or control the ball, however involuntary muscle contractions and hesitation before explosive movements do constitute activity limitations in comparison to able-bodied players.

As part of the sport regulations, each team must have on the pitch at least one FT5 or FT6 player but they cannot have more than one FT8 player at any time.

Whilst taking their point about FT8 players, and lack of visible impairment, I'm watching Australia v Portugal live right now, and I've played with guys in standard football leagues who are less able than some of these!
 


Triggaaar

Well-known member
Oct 24, 2005
49,984
Goldstone
Whilst taking their point about FT8 players, and lack of visible impairment, I'm watching Australia v Portugal live right now, and I've played with guys in standard football leagues who are less able than some of these!
Yeah it's surprising that only one player in our team met the FT 8 classification.
 


1066familyman

Radio User
Jan 15, 2008
15,185
I have it from the horses mouth that players are trained hard to cause muscle fatigue (as per anyone exercising) just prior to testing for competition classification. Effectively this means that players will likely get given a lower class than they might otherwise get, thereby gaining an advantage. Not technically cheating I suppose as all teams do the same I expect.
 




Official Old Man

Uckfield Seagull
Aug 27, 2011
8,486
Brighton
Whilst taking their point about FT8 players, and lack of visible impairment, I'm watching Australia v Portugal live right now, and I've played with guys in standard football leagues who are less able than some of these!
Thanks for taking the time to watch it. As you say, some average but watchable footie.
My interest by the way, my granddaughter has cp. She's two and I'd love her to be able to do what these guys are doing.
 


Official Old Man

Uckfield Seagull
Aug 27, 2011
8,486
Brighton
England through to the Quarter Finals. They play Russia at 16:30 today (June 24). Russia beat Rep Ire 8:1 Portugal 9:0 and Australia 5:0 Rep Ire then beat Portugal 8:0
England beat Japan 14:0 before losing to Ukraine 0:1 (lowest scoring game so far).
Live on http://www.cp2015.com/
What else have you got to do, enjoy it is England.
 



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