PADDYPOWER CUP

Over the weekend of August 10th and 11th, The Irish Amputee Football Team IAFA (http://www.irishamputeefootballassociation.com) will host and take part in an international soccer tournament, The PaddyPower Cup. This will see 116 players and staff from 6 countries descend on Limerick for 2 days that promises to be a very physical weekend of football, played at high tempo with skills with passion and pride to match making it all very entertaining to watch.

Poland, Germany, Belgium, England, Netherlands and host country, Ireland will battle it out through the group and knock out stages in a total of 11 games to see who will be first to lift the Paddypower cup. The same rules apply to Amputee football as conventional football with the exception that the outfield players have one leg and play on crutches without their prosthetic limb and the goal keeper has one arm. In training however, these International footballers play able bodied teams. If you haven't seen Amputee football played yet, please check out the action on our website or come to Limerick this weekend to cheer on the boys in green.

The tournament will be attended by the president of the World amputee football Federation, [WAFF] [http://www.worldamputeefootball.com/index.htm] Rick Hoff man from the US and by the founder of the association, 82-year-old Don Bennett also from the US. Don came up with the idea in 1980. The tournament will take place from the 10th-11th August, The Games will be played on the first class surface of the all-weather pitches , north campus , University of Limerick. The opening ceremony will take place at 10am on the Sat 10th August with the final being played Sunday 16.00hrs. Ireland kick off their campaign on Saturday , an opener with England who have 25 years playing experience behind them, but the team is confident and fired up and ready to do themselves and country proud and get to the final.

This football tournament is about highlighting the Game of amputee football, and encouraging the young Amputee youth to get involved. They are the future of our game .We hope to start a youth squad after this tournament; these will run alternatively in Limerick and Dublin for a full day once a month with a view to expanding to other locations as demand grows. We will have workshops running over the weekend of the tournament for anyone thinking of getting involved, so come down and try in out , you too could be putting on the green jersey one day.
In addition to increasing this awareness and getting more involved, IAFA have an ambitious goal of hosting the World Cup in 2016. The ground work for this is already underway and the Paddypower Cup will be an important event in leading the way for this venture.

The manager of the Irish Amputee Team is Christy McElligott who won a League of Ireland championship with St. Pat's in '95/'96. He then joined Ballymun United led them to FAI Junior Cup glory, before he himself became an amputee ending his conventional football career.

"The Irish Amputee Football Association [IAFA] was set up in 2011 and has gone from strength to strength, but now for the first time since forming, Ireland have a team that may be the underdogs going into this competition , but will be feared in all stages", Manager McElligott.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Irish-Amputee-Footbal-Association/269910…

Irish Amputee would like to thanks sponsors, PaddyPower, FAI (Football for All) and the University of Limerick.
Group One Group Two
Poland England
Germany Netherlands
Belgium Ireland

Aug 10th , Saturday - Paddy Power Cup

Aug 11th - Saturday 10.00am - Opening Ceremony
Match 1 -Aug 10th , Sat - 11:00 Poland v Germany
Match 2- Aug 10th, Sat - 12:00 England v Netherlands
Match 3 - Aug 10th, Sat - 14:00 Poland v Belgium
Match 4 - Aug 10th, Sat - 15:00 Ireland v Netherlands
Match 5 - Aug 10th - Sat -16:00 Germany v Belgium
Match 6 - Aug 10th - Sat - 17:00 Netherlands v Ireland

Aug 11th, Sunday - Paddy Power Cup

Semi Final 1- Aug 11th - Sun - 11:00 Winners Group 1 v Second Group 2
Semi Final 2 - Aug 11th - Sun - 12:00 Winners Group 2 v Second Group 1
5th - 6th Place Play Off - Aug 11th - Sun - 14:00 3 rd Group 1 v 3 rd Group 2
7th - 8th Place Play Off - Aug 11th - Sun - 15:00 Losers 7 v Losers 8
Paddy Power Cup Final Aug 11th - Sun - 16: 00

Further Information.
Amputee football isn't just about kicking a ball It's about working together as a team both on and off the field, it's about pushing your body to the limits, and coming out of your comfort zone. We entered 2 teams of 4 into a marathon relay at this year's Great Limerick Run, with each player running over 10k+in under 80 mins . We are already thinking of training and challenges after the Tournament we have teams signed up to do the Adare to Survive a 7.5k military-style obstacle course at the Equestrian Centre in Adare, Co Limerick. On September 29th the team members taking part will have to complete the course on crutches and without their prosthetic limb. The aim is to get through and over all the obstacles, from the 10 foot wall to the water obstacle, and to top it off they have to kick a ball round. The Amputee world cup is in Mexico next year 2014, that gives us just over a year to prepare a team to not only compete but be a serious contender in the world of Amputee Football, We also hope that by bringing the president of WAFF to Limerick, that once he sees the facilities and the way the tournament is run, this will favour our bid along with the support of sponsors