FC involved in Unified Football Tournament

On Sunday the 18th July while a good number of FC United’s support were recovering from Guinness induced hangovers in Belfast, three supporters were attending a football tournament in Salford.

They were there after a request from Salford’s Disability Sports Development Officer, who had contacted Vinny Thompson in the hope that FCUM would be able to provide three volunteers to help organise and run a 7-a-side football tournament for unified football teams (unified football teams contain both disabled and non-disabled players).

Luckily one of the FC group is a qualified referee so he was able to take charge of some of the games, which left two of the group to organise the fixtures and record the results.

The tournament was eventually won by the Manchester Amputees who, we were informed, were made up of internationals that have represented both England and Great Britain.

The teams that took part in the tournament had varying degrees of ability but without exception every player involved in this tournament played the game as it should be played.

At no time did any player roll around on the ground feigning injury, no player whinged when on the receiving end of a forceful tackle, every player shook hands at the end of each and every game. All-in-all it was an absolute pleasure to be involved in such a highly skilled football tournament that was played in the very best sportsman like behaviour.

To think that this is just one of many worthwhile projects that this club of ours is involved in should make all of us extremely proud. Whilst we are all rightly proud of what we have achieved as a club on the pitch, we should be equally proud of the projects we are involved in off the pitch as well.