Children with disabilities are often excluded from Cambodian society and rarely have access to education, sport and play. But, through our inclusive Football Programme, we are organising regular training an tournaments for players of all abilities to participate and compete in sport.

Our one-day ISF Deaf Football Tournament, which took place on 24 June 2017 at the ISF Sports Ground saw teams from Krousar Thmey dominate the pitch. The tournament brought together 18 teams of deaf and hearing-impaired players from all over Cambodia including Phnom Penh, Kampot, Battambang, Siem Reap and Kampong Cham.

More than 215 deaf and hearing-impaired girls and boys kicked off the tournament on Saturday morning and played through the threatening clouds and well into the afternoon heat. Thanks to its tenacious defence, Krousar Thmey Battambang beat DDP Phnom Penh 3-2 in a penalty shootout to win the boys division. In the girls competition, Krousar Thmey Battambang also beat DDP Kampot 1-0 in the last minute before the final whistle blew.

On the other pitches, there were fun games for players with intellectual disabilities which were both enjoyable and inspiring. All the  teams and spectators participating in the deaf tournament enjoyed the five activities run by one of the ISF coaches, who put into practice what he had learnt during the Special Olympics Asia Pacific Fitness Training in Singapore, a workshop aimed at building the skills of coaches of all abilities players and in turn improving all abilities athletes’ sport performance, health and lives. While our players may not be Olympians (yet) there’s still a lot of valuable information to be gained from learning how Olympian athletes train.