The founder of Scotland’s Amputee Football Association has called on the nation’s public to get behind the inaugural EAFF Nations League in October.
Hosting Group D of the competition, Scotland will be joined by the Netherlands, Albania, Azerbaijan and Kosovo in Fife in what will be the biggest international para-football tournament of its kind to take place in the country.
The matches will take place at Dalgety Bay Sports Centre and Ashley Reid, who is also chief executive of Scottish Para-Football, told the PA news agency: “We’d love for people to come along and support the team and indeed to get a flavour of this exciting and dynamic form of football.
“It’s an enormous coup for Scotland to be hosting an event such as this.
“It is probably the biggest sporting event for para football, disability football of its kind ever to be hosted in Scotland.
“We’ve got teams from countries across the world coming here and I very much hope we’ll put the spotlight on para football general in Scotland.
“It will be a big event. It’s testament to the growth of para football in Scotland, amputee football in Scotland, which was established over the last couple of years.
“We would love as many people as possible to come along over the course of the weekend and support this Scotland team.”
The Nations League is organised by the European Amputee Football Federation (EAFF) of which Amputee Football Association Scotland (AFAS) is a member.
The Scotland squad, made up of 11 individuals each with a lower or upper limb amputation, will face their international counterparts on 26-29 October and 15 matches will be played across three days.
Reid is looking for financial backing for the event which is set to cost the AFAS around £35,000.
She said: “We would be thrilled to discuss opportunities with anyone interested in becoming an event sponsor, or those able to support the event in any other ways.
“Anything with regards donations whether it be bottled water, or snacks, or sponsoring a player or with designing promotional stuff, any help at all, even volunteers.
“We literally are a charity operating with four volunteers.
“It is a huge event for us to pull off but we will do it.
“We hosted our first big international tournament, an invitational event, in November, where we had Belgium, Israel and Ireland over at the Oriam (Edinburgh) we did a great job.
“It was our first ever big tournament and it was fantastic. Hopefully we can really put on show and showcase amputee football at its best.”
Amputee Football Association Scotland was set up in 2017 to create opportunities for those with limb loss to participate in the game.
The organisation is now a Game Leader of Scottish Para-Football, the Scottish FA’s governing body for all forms of para-football in Scotland.
Eighteen sides will take part in the inaugural Amputee Football Nations League, with teams split into four divisions. Each division will play a tournament in a different location on a different date.
Scotland is a host nation, along with Poland, France and Belgium. The team in last place in each group will be relegated to the lower division, with the best team being promoted to the higher division.
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
Taylor pleased with City's physical test during Hammarby win
Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor was pleased with how his team stood up to the physical challenge of Hammarby in their 2-0 Champions League victory on Tuesday.
City's win extended their unbeaten start to the season, having won every game in all competitions following a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on opening day.
“Difficult game for us, physical challenge, a physical team in Hammarby. I think they outnumber us a little bit in terms of size, considering when you look at our midfield. But I thought the girls handled it really well," Taylor said after the game
“I thought we dominated the game. In the early parts we were just a little bit off in our final action. We just needed to speed up a little bit in terms of being on the end of it, and we spoke about that at half-time, and we score with Laura getting into that type of position we’d been talking about.
“[The physicality was something] we were prepared for, but dealing with it is a different thing. Having Bunny [Khadija Shaw] and Alanna [Kennedy] on the pitch, two of our more physical players, is really important, particularly for set-plays.
“At 1-0 we were defending a couple of scenarios like that, Yama [Ayaka Yamashita] making a really good save at one point. Then Aoba [Fujino] got the goal that maybe allowed us to change things up a little bit more, get some people off that we’d like to manage.
“I think the girls have dealt with it really well tonight. We expected it, we thought it would be difficult, and they rose to the challenge.”
The victory leaves City top of their Champions League group with a 100% record after three matches, three points above second-placed Barcelona.
Taylor had made changes to City's starting XI, with Lauren Hemp among the trio to drop out from the weekend and she did not feature in the squad. Ahead of their weekend game against Chelsea, who are second in the WSL, Taylor explained the reasoning behind Hemp's absence.
“We’ve just got an issue with Lauren that we just need to analyse a little bit further, that’s all," he said.
“It’s something that potentially happened in the Palace game [on 3 November]. She was able to play in the Tottenham game [last Friday] but wasn’t able to tonight, so we’ll just take a little bit longer to assess and find out more.
“Hopefully [she can play against Chelsea]. There’s an opportunity there, we’ll just have to take a moment tomorrow, have a good conversation and find out where we’re at with the medical staff.”
Al-Riyadh 0-1 Al-Nassr: Mane hands visitors bragging rights
Sadio Mane's first-half strike ensured Al-Nassr maintained their unbeaten start to the Saudi Pro League season with a 1-0 win over rivals Al-Riyadh.
He smartly finished from close range in the 41st minute, with his goal enough to seal the three points and move Al-Nassr up to third in the table.
Al-Nassr's threat grew as the first half went on, with Milan Borjan making a fine double stop to deny Ronaldo and Talisca once again before Mohamed Simakan struck the post on the rebound.
Mane would eventually break the deadlock in the 41st minute though, darting in front of his marker to meet Abdulrahman Ghareeb's low cross and rifle it into the roof of the net.
The Senegalese striker arguably should have doubled his tally before the break, but was denied by Borjan's stretching save when one-on-one with the Canadian.
Talisca should have wrapped up the points in the final three minutes, but he blazed over an empty net from close range, before having a late goal disallowed for offside.
Data Debrief: Derby delight for Al-Nassr
After drawing their last two matches, this win was a welcome result for Al-Nassr as they racked up their sixth victory of the season to close the gap at the top of the table to six points.
It is just the second time Al-Nassr have avoided defeat in their first 10 matches of a Pro League campaign, last doing so in 2013-14, when they won the league title.
They are now unbeaten in their last seven Pro League derbies (W4 D3), their longest such streak since a run of nine between 2018 and 2020.
This is the first time in eight such games that they have kept a clean sheet though, and limited their opponents to just five shots throughout.
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