The FA Disability Cup returns to St. George's Park
The FA Disability Cup Finals will return to St George’s Park on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 July, with BT Sport providing coverage over the weekend, the first time the competition has been broadcast live.
The 2021 Finals complete the fifth edition of the competition and will see five cup finals scheduled across the weekend, delivered in partnership with a range of impairment-specific organisations.
The Disability Cup is the largest competition of its kind in this country, giving players within impairment-specific football a national competition of their own, complete with dreams of reaching St. George’s Park for finals weekend.
The Schedule
Saturday 17 July
10.30am - 12.30pm: POWERCHAIR FINAL – Aspire PFC v West Bromwich Albion PFC
12.30pm - 3pm: CEREBRAL PALSY FINAL - North East & Yorkshire v CP North West
3pm - 5.15pm: PARTIALLY SIGHTED FINAL - Scorpion Futsal Club v Birmingham Futsal
Sunday 18 July
10.30am - 12.30pm: AMPUTEE FINAL - Peterborough United Amputees v Portsmouth Amputees
12.30pm - 2.35pm: BLIND FINAL - RNC Hereford v Merseyside Blind & VI FC
BT Sport’s coverage will be presented by Alex Brooker, presenter of Channel 4’s The Last Leg, five-time Paralympic champion Hannah Cockcroft and BT Sport presenter Jules Breach.
Supporting its long-term partnership with the four home nation football federations, which aims to boost support for disability football, BT Sport’s coverage will be available for anyone to watch without a subscription via its app for mobiles, tablets, smart TVs, media adapters and games consoles, plus the BT Sport’s Facebook channel. Highlights coverage will also be available on Channel 4 on 25 July, with details announced soon.
The competition will also offer the most accessible live coverage of a football match taking place in the UK to date. On each day, live coverage of all the finals will feature on three BT Sport channels with each offering different accessibility features. BT Sport 3 will feature enhanced Audio Description delivered by an expert based at St George’s Park. In addition, BT Sport Extra 1 will carry British Sign Language, with subtitles available on BT Sport 1. A fourth channel, BT Sport Ultimate, will provide coverage in up to 4K HDR picture quality.
Next season, BT Sport will trial the inclusion of these accessibility features around several sports. BT is committed to making these features available as standard for all of its live coverage in the future.
Find out more on how to watch, including channel information and how to access all the accessibility features.
Baroness Sue Campbell, The FA’s director of women's football and strategic lead for disability football, said: “This year’s FA Disability Cup promises to be the most exciting yet, with some of the nation’s most successful grassroots teams set to compete to be crowned national champions in their respective disciplines.
"Disability football is a fast growing and important format of the game so to have all of the action broadcast live on BT Sport is fantastic news and will showcase the talent of all those involved, as well as inspiring newcomers to the sport.”
Jamie Hindhaugh, COO of BT Sport, added: “At BT, we're proud of our rich heritage in supporting disability sport, having been a founding partner of the British Paralympic Association, sponsor of the 2012 Paralympics and backing dozens of disability sports projects through the BT and Premier League Disability Programme.
"We're looking forward to bringing fans highly accessible coverage of the 2021 FA Disability Cup, which is set to advance BT’s vision with the four Home Nation Football Associations to provide new opportunities for everyone to enjoy the benefits of football.”
In the 2019 edition of the competition, North West Scorpions won the Partially Sighted Final, while another North West team - CP North West FC - were winners in the Cerebral Palsy Final. In the Powerchair Final, Aspire FC were victorious, while Everton Amputees FC lifted the Amputees Cup and Merseyside Blind & VI FC clinched the Blind Cup.
The FA will be hosting the Amputee cup final in partnership with England Amputee Football Association, the Blind cup final in partnership with the National Blind Football League, the Cerebral Palsy cup final in partnership with CP Sport, the Partially Sighted cup final in partnership with the National Partially Sighted Football League and finally, the Powerchair cup final in partnership with the Wheelchair Football Association.