Great Britain Deaf Football

Deaf Football in Great Britain has a very proud and strong history, dating back to 1871, a history that is virtually unknown to the majority of the followers of football in Britain. Most deaf teams in Great Britain compete in mainstream football leagues nationally. The majority of clubs compete in the British Deaf Football Cup annually, which has been running since 1959. Deaf Football clubs have been around longer than the majority of all the teams in the English and Scottish Football League pyramid. Great Britain boasts the oldest deaf football club in the world in Glasgow Deaf Athletic Football Club, founded in 1871. Several deaf footballers have managed to reach the professional ranks over the last century, but only a dozen have been noted. Some have reached the highest levels of the game, while others have had only limited opportunities to succeed at the top level: some accounts suggest that yet more appear to have been rejected because of their inability to hear, rather than because of their footballing abilities. Those deaf footballers achieving league status include instances of players born either profoundly deaf at an early age, or during their playing careers. However it is no doubt significant that no profoundly deaf players - as in professional players who became deafened - have appeared in professional teams. Great Britain beat Iran in the final at the Melbourne 2005 Deaflympics. (The Deaflympics is the second oldest international sporting competition after the Olympics.) Great Britain Deaf have been crowned World Champions six times since the Deaflympics was formed in 1924, which is more than any other country.