Liverpool teams up with Special Olympics to run football clinics for intellectually disabled athletes

LIVERPOOL Football Club (LFC) – in Singapore for the second straight year for their pre-season preparations – recently organised two football training clinics here for young athletes with intellectual disabilities.

The clinics involved 41 participants with intellectual disabilities aged between 15 and 30 years, and were held in partnership with Special Olympics Asia Pacific (Soap). The latter is a global inclusion movement that leverages sport, health, education and leadership programmes to end discrimination against and empower people with intellectual disabilities.

The clinics – held on Jul 28 and Aug 1 at Tanglin Trust School – were run by LFC Foundation, which is the English Premier League team’s official charity. The athletes were coached by six professional coaches from the foundation.

Forbes Duff, the head of community engagement at LFC Foundation, said it was a definite “yes” when he was approached by the Special Olympics to run the clinics in Singapore.

“As a football club, we believe that everyone matters and want to make football and sports accessible to everyone and anyone”, he said.

One of the athletes who took part was 20-year-old Shane Yan, who was diagnosed with autism when he was just three years old. That, however, did not deter him from his love for sports, in particular football.

He attended both training clinics and left with new skills and knowledge about the sport.

“Football can be an inclusive sport, and everyone who has a passion should be able to play it,” he said.  “I encourage people with intellectual disabilities to join sports because a disability shouldn’t deter them from pursuing their dreams.” 

The clinics also involved 13 participants without intellectual disabilities. As a way to raise awareness of social inclusion through football, the sessions included “unified sports”, where people with and without intellectual disabilities got the opportunity to play together on the same team.

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Pearl Ang, senior manager of health at Soap, said: “We want to include (people with intellectual disabilities) in all aspects of society and life – including sports. Our goal for this partnership with LFC Foundation, as well as any other future partnerships, is to work towards greater inclusion.”

Liverpool are in town this year as part of the inaugural Singapore Festival of Football Driven by CDG Zig pre-season event. On Jul 30, they defeated Leicester City 4-0 at the National Stadium. On Aug 2, they lost 3-4 to Germany’s Bayern Munich at the same venue in the third and final match of the event.