Dad pays £75,000 to send deaf team to tournament

The father of a deaf England futsal player has paid £75,000 to ensure the national team can compete at this year's world championships.

Steve Down, from Epping, Essex, has been paying for the men's side, which his son Byron captains, since the Football Association (FA) withdrew funding in 2020.

He said bankrolling the team, which is about to compete in the World Deaf Futsal Championships in Italy, had become an "expensive hobby".

The FA said it funded men's 11-a-side disability football instead of futsal, but insisted there was a "comprehensive performance pathway" for players.

It axed funding for elite futsal teams due to what it called "unavoidable" budget cuts associated with Covid-19.

The FA decided to focus on women's futsal, claiming the players were "supportive" of the move and getting better opportunities.

"It's very sad because futsal is a great game and it improves your footballing ability," said Mr Down, 57, who has continued to appeal for sponsorship.

Futsal is a form of football that features two teams of five people, but is played with a harder ball on a hard court.

Byron, 26, was first called up to the national team aged 15, a feat Mr Down described as "every father's dream".

Mr Down, who owns a tanker company, estimated he had spent £250,000 covering the team's expenses since 2020.

That included paying £120,000 to ensure the side could play at the 2023 World Deaf Futsal Championships in Brazil.

Mr Down said the trip to Italy's tournament, which kicks off on Saturday, cost £75,000 in flights and hotels.

"I don't like to keep an exact sum of money I've spent because it would be worrying," he told BBC Essex Sport Extra.

"It would be nice if the team could become self-sufficient rather than having to rely on myself; it's been hard."

• Futsal is the FIFA-recognised form of small-sided indoor football
• Teams each have five players on the pitch, with rolling substitutes
• The ball is smaller than a football and harder and less bouncy
• Each half lasts 20 minutes, with a clock that stops whenever the ball is out of play

Mr Down wrote to all 92 English Football League clubs for support, but said none would help with funding.

However, he said West Bromwich Albion and Stevenage sent match tickets for him to auction.

The national deaf team was having to pay £65 an hour for a training pitch in Derbyshire.

"To watch your son play for England – whether he's deaf or not – is absolutely amazing," Mr Down added.

"It still chokes me up now and if I didn't like it, I wouldn't have invested the amount of money I had in the team, would I? But it's an expensive hobby."

The FA said it was developing "world-leading talent" in the 11-a-side game for deaf men.

"We believe our investment into deaf male football represents the largest investment into a single deaf sport from any national body of sport in England," a spokesman added.

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