GiveToLocal enables community sport clubs to connect to donors, sponsors and the business community via an all-year-round fundraising platform.

In 2021 GiveToLocal is working with 21 sports – including powerchair football – and its mission is to generate £10m of additional income for community sport each year. 

Brian Dix, Chairman of The Wheelchair Football Association, said: “2020 was the hardest year in our history.

“We were forced to cancel all elements of powerchair football activity and our community was asked to shield for many months. Our challenge now is to come out of this situation on the front foot, both on and off the pitch. This partnership opportunity is just one part of our plan to provide support to the powerchair football community going forward.

“GiveToLocal’s model is unique and offers clubs a great opportunity to develop sustainable income by becoming even more connected into their local communities.

“We recognise how important it is to support all elements of our membership and this national partnership has the potential to do that. The Wheelchair Football Association is very much looking forward to working with GiveToLocal in 2021 and we’re excited about what we can achieve together.”

“The potential for this partnership to grow is there for everyone to see”

“It feels fantastic to have The Wheelchair Football Association on board as a partner,” said Colin Stromsoy, Director Of Strategic Partnerships at GiveToLocal.

“This a very special partnership and one which means so much to me and the rest of the GiveToLocal team. The Wheelchair Football Association does incredible work in the community and supports powerchair players at every level.

“There’s so much synergy between the two organisations and the potential for this partnership to grow is there for everyone to see.”

GiveToLocal’s service will be available to all clubs affiliated to The Wheelchair Football Association and it is hoped that powerchair football clubs across the country will engage with an organisation committed to supporting the sport at every level. As the conduit between clubs and additional income streams, GiveToLocal encourages donors and sponsors to make a positive difference.

How it works

GiveToLocal was created to help bring communities together and change how sports clubs and local businesses are supported.

The organisation’s intention is to provide a platform and supporting service that helps to bring new revenues into clubs – not to create a new way to collect existing revenues.

The incentivised-giving platform makes it attractive for individuals and companies to directly support clubs or teams and to reward them in return.

By pledging as little as £3 per month donors can directly support their community clubs safe in knowledge that every penny goes to the club. In return they can also receive benefits linked to local businesses.

To register your powerchair football club with GiveToLocal please click on the following link: www.givetolocal.com/clubs

The WFA is fully engaged and committed to the welfare of all of its participants regardless of their level of involvement. The issues associated with health and wellbeing among our members is a major priority for the WFA. Challenging the issues and devising solutions will be a major factor in promoting an environment of change within the sport.

The Tough 10 will involve members engaging in a 10-week programme that will offer several activities that could help with physical and mental health, wellbeing, diet and exercise, learning, isolation and increasing self-confidence. The latter weeks will see an increased focus on a range of activities that will support participants towards the process of returning to regular footballing activity.

A series of simple challenges have been established for participants to undertake throughout the programme to positively contribute towards their health and wellbeing. 

Participants register to take part via the form below and will be required to complete a short survey to gauge their base level of wellbeing. Participants will then retake the survey at the end of the challenge to see whether there has been any change in their wellbeing. Participants can also be added to a private Facebook group, where they can connect with others and share their progress.

During the first half of the programme, participants will undertake a variety of challenges of their choosing. They can undertake the same challenges every week or pick different challenges to suit them, however, a minimum of 5 challenges must be completed every week.

During the second half of the programme, additional challenges are included for selection. These are more powerchair football-specific. Players can choose to include some football-specific challenges and non-players can either continue with the initial challenges or, support their child with the football challenges where possible. Participants can choose 2 football specific challenges each week to add to their existing challenges from weeks 1-5.

If you want a New Year challenge, have the desire to increase your general wellbeing and kick-start your progress to return to football why not give it a go. You can challenge other members of your team, club or family too!

At the 2020 Annual General Meeting of the WFA, our members voted in new members to the Executive Committee.

As new members begin their time with the WFA, we would like to extend a gracious thank you to the outgoing members of the board. We would like to thank David Lewis, Amy Wharton, Paul O’Brien and Paul Hunt for the considerable time, effort and expertise they dedicated to The WFA and sport of Powerchair Football. 

To the new members, on behalf of the WFA and our community, we extend a warm welcome and look forward to each of you focusing your unique talents on developing and growing The WFA and Powerchair Football in this country. We are delighted to welcome Brian Dix on board as WFA Chairperson, Rob Thompson as WFA Vice-Chair, Anthony Nweke as WFA National League Secretary, Mark Kerrison as WFA Head of Referee Development, Paul Gorman as a new WFA Trustee and Jon Bolding, who was officially ratified as WFA Player Representative.

For a comprehensive list of WFA Exec Members, Trustees and Staff, visit our Staff & Committee page.

So we’re back in lockdown and many of us are at home, spending a lot more time looking at various screens than we would normally. For sports fans who can no longer go to see their team play in a stadium, tv streaming services have become essential for following all the live action.

Level Playing Field, the live sports disability access and inclusion charity want to know if these streaming services are accessible to everyone. Some websites and services are not compatible with assistive technology like screen readers, which read text to blind and partially sighted users, or speech input so that people can talk to their computer instead of using a keyboard. It is estimated that 4.3 million disabled people click away from inaccessible websites each year.

For this reason, Level Playing Field want to hear about disabled fans’ experiences. They’ve set up a ‘Streaming Services Survey’ for disabled supporters to share their views.

The survey is available here.

The survey aims to help Level Playing Field and other organisations understand whether these streaming services are fully accessible for disabled supporters or whether improvements can be made. The results will be shared publicly and with service providers directly, with a focus on what can be done to improve.

There are many barriers that disabled people face in life, but most of these barriers can be removed through effective dialogue and good practice. Watching live sport is a huge part of many people’s lives and no one should feel excluded from this just because stadiums are currently closed. Supporters still have a passion for sport and streaming services need to be accessible to all fans.

The survey will be open for 5 weeks from Friday 13^th Nov till Friday 18^th Dec.

For more details, please contact: info@levelplayingfield.org.uk

We are delighted to announce the delivery of upcoming online well-being sessions for members of The WFA community. Courtesy of funding from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund, The WFA will deliver a variety of sessions covering areas including psychology, health and nutrition and general social catch up sessions for our members. 

Erin Prior has worked closely with the England National side and was a key figure in their successful Nations Cup back in 2019.

Erin will be delivering three workshops in the coming weeks that focus on goal-setting, confidence, positive mindset and much more.

October 14th, 19:00

• Returning to Training- Players 

October 19th, 19:00

• Returning to Training- Coaches

November 4th, 19:00

• Optimising Player Well-Being

Chrissie Langley has worked closely with the WFA over the last couple of years at the FA’s Powerchair Football Emerging Talent Pathway programme, educating the players on overall good health and nutrition. 

Chrissie will be delivering two sessions in the coming weeks, an introduction to nutrition and another on health and nutrition in the winter months. 

October 27th, 19:00

• Introduction to Nutrition

November 10th, 19:00

• Health and Nutrition in winter (role of Vitamin D)

During this session, Erin will discuss various ways that players can return to training with confidence. This will include building on the goal-setting workshop, understanding their aims for the initial sessions, reflecting on their thoughts regarding returning to training, and learning how to evaluate their training sessions effectively.

This session aims to give players the tools for a positive and enjoyable return to the sport.

This online workshop is delivered specifically for players. Please Note: If you are under the age of 18, we advise you to attend the session with a parent.

Registration for this workshop closes at 12:00pm on Wednesday, October 14th.

This session will be delivered for clubs and coaches. Erin will explore how coaches and others in the training environment can set the tone for a successful return to the sport. This will involve considering goals for initial sessions, how these goals are communicated with players, how to create a supportive environment, supporting players to thrive upon their return and continue to develop the club/team dynamic.

This online workshop is delivered specifically for club officials and coaches. 

Duration: Approx 1 hour

Registration closes 12:00pm October 19th. 

The primary focus of Chrissie’s first session will be on basic nutrition and understanding ways in which we can lead a healthier lifestyle.

Beginning with hydration and drinks, Chrissie will investigate why we need to stay hydrated, how it helps us in and away from football and the best methods to help us hydrate. She will then move on to the basics of diet to help us understand what we are putting into our bodies, from this she will look into what a healthy plate should look like; moderation and making healthier choices.

Please Note: If you are under the age of 18, we advise you to attend the session with a parent.

Duration: Approx 1 hour

Registration closes 12:00pm October 27th.

This session will involve an introduction to mental health and well-being in sports. Players will learn about the various things that can impact athlete mental health, both positively and negatively. The aim of this session is to help players to understand that many athletes experience high and low points within their sport. This session hopes to support them in feeling part of a community and not alone with any of the challenges they are facing.

Please Note: If you are under the age of 18, we advise you to attend the session with a parent.

Duration: Approx 1 hour

Registration closes 12:00pm November 4th.

In this session Chrissie will discuss how we can make good choices over the festive period, using knowledge gained in session 1 (Introduction to Nutrition). Chrissie will also investigate lifestyle choices that will help to keep us healthy during the colder months.

Please Note: If you are under the age of 18, we advise you to attend the session with a parent.

Duration: Approx 1 hour

Registration closes 12:00pm November 10th.

BY RYAN DACK

The Wheelchair Football Association’s (WFA) End of Season Ceremony took place earlier this month. Due to the current social distancing guidelines, the ceremony wasn’t able to go ahead in its usual capacity – so instead was celebrated through a live YouTube feed.

The virtual event was spearheaded by WFA National Development Officer Ryan Sipple and Alex Dowding of Goals Beyond Grass (GBG) – “a charity dedicated to helping children, families, and communities across the country reach their full potential by engaging in physical and social activity”.

Ryan Sipple said –

“This event wouldn’t have been possible without Goals Beyond Grass, so absolutely all credit goes to them! Despite Alex Dowding and I leading on this virtual event,  the support and expertise of Brian Dix, Adam McEvoy, Kieran Franks and Tim Butler was invaluable!

It was just amazing to see the whole community come together to celebrate our amazing sport! We were absolutely overwhelmed with the response we received both in the lead-up to and during the event. I want to thank all of the incredible sponsors who supported this fantastic celebration from its creation, all the way to its execution on September 5th. “

The virtual event was a hit with the Powerchair Football Community, with over 300 people watching the live stream throughout the evening (which lasted approximately 2 hours). To give the event more of an interactive feel the hashtag #JustLovePowerchairFootball was introduced, meaning any pictures posted using the hashtag appeared on the live stream – almost 100 pictures were submitted on the night.

Ryan also said-

“The engagement we received from the Powerchair community made the countless hours spent on this project absolutely worth it’.

Throughout the evening a total of 15 awards were announced, ranging from individual player awards to a prestigious lifetime achievement award.

Jon said – “I was completely honoured to receive this award. When your level of play is recognised by your fellow competitors the feeling is special. 

“I just want to say thank you to all the players who voted for me, it really is appreciated. I’m not going to relax now that I have this award, I’m going to continue to work hard and try to be better next season.”

Patrick said- “I’m delighted to receive the Premiership Young Player of the Year award. I wasn’t expecting it, because there are so many other good young players. Thank you to everyone who voted. An individual award is impossible to win without the support of a team, so I would especially like to thank my Manchester United teammates.”

Chris said – “I am honoured to have been recognised by my fellow competitors at the WFA as this seasons Premiership Head Coach of the Year! It’s my first individual award, and something I am immensely proud of. Many thanks to my team for their hard work and the Albion Foundation for their continued support”.

They said- “We’d like to thank everyone that voted for us. The award is a testament to the team’s dedication and hard work during the last couple of seasons. We’re all still improving and can’t wait for the challenges that next season will bring”.

Marcus said – “It’s a proud moment to be the winner of the Premiership Top Goal Scorer award. I’d like to thank my teammates for helping me achieve this and the Albion Foundation for their continued support”.

Myles said – “It’s a great honour to have even been shortlisted for the award. Despite the season being cut short, there were so many amazing goals scored.  I was against some tough competition – so it was a special feeling to win. The award has inspired me to push myself to new heights. I’d like to thank everyone who voted for me”.

Lee said – “To be voted as the Championship Player of the Year by my fellow players and coaches was amazing. Winning two awards in one night made the evening incredibly special and I’d like to thank all those who voted for me”.

Tyler said – “I was surprised and delighted to be awarded the Championship Young Player of the Year award. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who voted for me.

I feel honoured that I received the award as there are so many talented young players in the league. I can’t wait to be back on the pitch”.

Jamie said – “Firstly and most importantly I would like to thank the group of players I have had the privilege of working with this season. Secondly, I would like to thank everyone that voted for me as Coach of the Year; it’s extremely rewarding to know that people within the sport appreciate the work that you do. 

Finally, I would like to thank Rob Thompson – he may not be seen on the sidelines at weekends or coach the weekly sessions but the work he does behind the scenes both on and off the court cannot be underestimated”.

They said – “Thanks to everyone who voted for Newcastle United PFC as Championship Team of the Year. We entered the season with an approach which involved attacking progressive football whilst also developing exciting young players and placing full trust in them at all stages throughout the year.

Credit goes to everyone in the team and the club as a whole. We look forward to our debut season in the Premiership”.

Lee said – “Being top goal scorer is a big personal achievement of mine as I’ve never won it before in the league. I must give credit to my team and Jamie for me getting me there this season”.

Tom said- “I felt honoured to win goal of the season. I was very emotional as I shared the moment with my family watching the awards on the TV.

First Recruitment Services (FRS), one of the South’s leading independent recruitment agencies, proudly sponsored this year’s Fair Play Award.

It was a wonderful surprise for Andrew Kaltz, CEO at FRS, to discover that the winners were the Brighton & Hove Albion Powerchair Football Club, with Kaltz being a season ticket holder and a life-long fan Brighton.

Despite an extremely challenging year for the Brighton & Hove Albion Powerchair Football team off the court, on the court, the have displayed exemplary passion, determination and of course, fair play to make them worthy winners of this year’s award.

One of the final awards of the night was the Barry O’Leary Services to Powerchair Football award. Proudly supported by The Muscle Help Foundation, this award was created to recognise for individuals that have contributed substantial time and expertise to help develop and grow the sport of Powerchair Football.

In regards to the award, Ryan Sipple said –

“We all know how much of a pillar Barry was in the Powerchair community. Due to his deep ties with The Muscle Help Foundation, we reached out to CEO and Founder, Michael McGrath, to see if he would be on board with supporting an annual award named after Barry that would recognise individuals who have selflessly given to the sport. Without hesitation, we had the complete backing of Michael and the Muscle Help Foundation which was amazing!

We all know how challenging this year has been for Karen, Ryan and Liam, so we hope this small gesture can show them how much he meant to us all.  

We were all absolutely delighted to announce Paul Gorman as the inaugural winner of the award. Paul’s selfless dedication to both the sport of Powerchair Football and the people around him make him a fitting winner of this prestigious award.”

Paul Gorman of Leeds PFC was the inaugural winner of the award. He said –

“I had no idea I had been nominated for the award. I only realised after it was mentioned on the stream – what a surprise that was!

Considering the wealth of experience that both Steve and Carolyn have amassed over the years I was honoured just to be nominated.

I have a lot of people to thank – Michael McGrath for his kind words during the presentation. The O’Leary family for setting up the award in the memory of an inspiring man and of course my football family at Leeds PFC.

I have always considered myself as the conductor of a magnificently talented orchestra in Leeds PFC. I am truly humbled that the work I am involved in has been recognised, I fully intend to continue and not rest upon my laurels. Watch this space.”

On its fifteen-year anniversary, the Wheelchair Football Association created a prestigious Lifetime Achievement award which was proudly presented to former WFA Chair and current FIPFA President, Ricky Stevenson.

Ricky said-

The first-ever virtual WFA End of Season awards ceremony was nothing short of full success. The Wheelchair Football Association strives to give its members the best content possible and believe that this event has set a good benchmark going forward – they are confident that they can exceed community engagement and overall quality for future events.

Stay tuned. Stay connected. Stay safe.

Ryan Dack

Following the postponement of all powerchair football activity in March, The WFA have been working on what a return will look like.

Also during this time we consulted with the community to find out their views and opinions on a return to football. 

We would like to thank the community for their replies to our return to powerchair football survey. Since its release, we have received over 200 responses, giving us a wide range of views at this present time. 

We have made the results available here:

We now have a good understanding of the views and opinions of our community at this present time.

We have developed a Roadmap to provide the community with an insight into our anticipated, phased return to powerchair football. We will also provide a follow up survey in the coming weeks for the community to complete again to measure the difference in views.

However, there are a few caveats at this time that we hope you understand:

• As a roadmap we understand this only provides the community with our schedule for a return to powerchair football. Further detail will only be released once more is known from the government and The FA provide overarching guidance on indoor football as the governing body for the game. We will then provide guidance on the additional considerations for the powerchair football community. This will include guidance on areas such as behaviours and equipment.
• The Roadmap has been developed with anticipated changes in social distancing and relaxation in regulations of the use of indoor facilities, therefore is constantly under review and is subject to change.
• At the date of first release, there is no published guidance on indoor facility usage and shielding is still in operation for vulnerable people, with many members of the powerchair football community continuing to remain at home until then.

As is already within our game, clubs are required to undertake a risk assessment process to mitigate any foreseeable risk. A return to powerchair football post-Covid19 will require clubs to include potential risks associated with the pandemic and how they intend to operate within government guidelines.

The WFA will work alongside the FA to identify these areas in order to provide clubs with the potential hazards and areas that will need to be assessed prior to any return.

It is extremely unlikely that the 2020/21 season will be delivered in its usual capacity, with the WFA’s foremost priority being a safe return to club-based activities and re-establishing the confidence of the powerchair community. Competitive activity will only be established once it is safe to do so and we have progressed through steps 1 to 4. There is no time scale on the completion of these steps and we may remain in some steps longer than others. 

Depending on when competitive activity can commence, there may need to be changes to competitive programmes, including regional and national leagues and the WFA cup. This may lead to a condensed season.

The WFA will be exploring different options for the National League and WFA cup and will be in communication with regional leagues to offer guidance to them as well.

We will update the road map at such times when we feel confident in progressing to the next step. This will be in line with areas such as government guidance, FA guidance and medical expertise. Further updated guidance will be released to clubs to support this. 

The WFA is committed to supporting all members to prepare to return to powerchair football. It will be necessary for us to adapt and change the ways things operate, but we will continue to communicate with the community to provide ongoing updates to support this. 

We were approached by Goals Beyond Grass, one of our Partner Organisations with a proposal for a new site that would offer a number of enhancements over the previous site and save us money. The proposal was an opportunity to look at other providers to and following a process to look at what else was available, the Goals Beyond Grass proposal offered some key additions to what we can offer as well as being excellent value for money. This new site is the first step of the development process that will also see the introduction of The WFA Learning Portal, a complete online learning site that will help deliver training in many areas of our sport.

The site has been completely rebuilt on a new platform that is fully responsive to any device and enables us to create content more quickly and with more options. A membership system will still be in place and will become active by the end of July that will be your login for the Learning Portal as well as the main site.

The other big and obvious change is our new branding. This includes a new logo, font/typeface and colours. The changes have been made to create a more dynamic and device friendly site, but very much evolution, not revolution. As you can see then, we have retained the shape and colour scheme of the logo, but have changed the variations of the colours. Find out more below.

As part of the new build process we have also taken the opportunity to update and evolve The WFA brand identity.

The old logo was designed and produced at a time when Powerchair Football wasn’t the only wheelchair football game in development, so needed to reflect more than just Powerchair Football. 

As Powerchair has become the only wheelchair football version, the need to reflect more accurately our sport, organisation and members has developed too. The new logo therefore incorporates graphics that represent the fundamental elements of our sport whilst retaining the shape and colour scheme of the previous logo to allow for continuity and recognition of the history of the organisation.

A new Primary Font has also been developed and incorporated into the website that is unique to The WFA and will be used in all published materials going forward. A Graphics Charter will be published soon to allow clubs and partner organisations to use the new branding correctly in their online and printed publicity.

Main site

All devices

Fully responsive website for any device.

My WFA – Improved membership system

The ‘My WFA’ membership will be tailored to your role in the community meaning if you’re a player, coach, referee, league official or supporter, you will have access to the most relevant and helpful information. Of course, we know many of you fulfil more than one role, so support for everything you do will be available under a single login in the ‘My WFA’ section.

Up to date stats with Pro-My Sport

Match Day Live: We are currently working with Pro-My Sport to produce an unparalleled Live Match Day page that will give you live tables, match scores, match events including goals, cards and video highlights throughout National League weekends.

Regularly updated tables and scorer charts will also be available on the National League Pages. We have the potential to offer this functionality to Regional Leagues as well, but we will need to discuss this with them individually once we have completed some more development work behind the scenes.

Community Involvement

Community Content: The new site allows us to build really easy to use writing tools so you can submit the latest news from your club, reports from regional league weekends, exciting developments in your area or anything you would like to see on the site, without being a web designer. Beautifully responsive pages at the click of a button! The WFA is its members so we want you to be involved.

Streamlined processes

Affiliation and more: The new site will be able to handle all the affiliation for players and clubs as well as payment processes in much easier and more streamlined processes. As requirements from clubs, the FA and GDPR change, our new system is flexible and powerful enough to adapt and change smoothly. We will also be able to utilise these tools to get feedback from the community to guide our decision making and development of the sport.

Learning Portal

The Learning Portal will become the centre of our training and development for the community. Future coaching, refereeing, club administration, fundraising, marketing and promotion courses will all be available online as well as integrated into face to face courses where appropriate.

The Learning Portal will keep a record of all the training you have completed, allow you to complete refresher courses and print out certificates and confirmations of your awards. Courses planned include the introduction and advance usage of the Pro-My App, Powerchair Specific Coaching, Marketing & Social Media for Clubs as well as many more. Offering training to a community spread wide geographically and with a number of distinct areas of training needed is a challenge and we hope to move to a high-quality online learning platform as a major element of that delivery will transform the training side of The WFA.

This will be available with your single ‘My WFA’ account.

Dear clubs,

The WFA Executive committee hope you are all well and continuing to remain safe and healthy. As we enter into July and the 2020/21 season, we want to provide you with an update.

Return to powerchair football planning

Firstly, we are pleased to inform you that we are working on establishing guidance on a return to powerchair football. We have created a sub-committee to discuss all elements of our game and the advisable precautions ahead of a return to basic activities.

The sub-committee comprises of members from all elements of the community to provide us with as many views as possible. We are also seeking support and expertise from outside the powerchair football community; we are engaging with our colleagues at Muscular Dystrophy UK and their clinical experts as well as health & safety staff at The FA to support in these areas. 

In addition to this, in order to make informed and thoughtful decisions to guide our future return to Powerchair Football, we also want to receive thoughts and feedback from all areas of our community. We have created a survey for members to complete, this has been sent to all club secretaries to share with their respective club members. 

In a similar vein to other sports, we envisage a return to activity being a step by step process, aimed at a gradual return, subject to continued government guidance and reductions in risk for our community to increase their levels of activity. Initial guidance will be based on a return to training only. 

The government update on Thursday 9th July, highlighting the reopening of leisure facilities is very welcome news for powerchair football. However, throughout this process, the health and safety of our members and community remains our first priority and is at the core of our decision making. More information will be released in due course. 

Covid19 has presented the world with many problems to overcome and we are no different. We appreciate your understanding and support whilst we work towards a safe return to our game. 

In the meantime, we encourage our members to stay safe and continue to follow medical guidance or speak to your specific doctors or consultants for individual advice. 

Yours in Sport,
The WFA Executive Committee

With the coronavirus pandemic leading to the postponement of football, The FA have delivered a series of support webinars aimed at providing additional support for Clubs and Leagues.

The FA have provided us with their content to share across the football community through our individual networks. The webinars cover a wide range of topics which will have relevance to powerchair football clubs and leagues, including planning during times of uncertainty, using social media effectively and how to use marketing to generate income for clubs and leagues.

Webinars are being delivered weekly, with information available via social media and through county FA’s if you wish to attend a live webinar. If you wish to watch the webinars you can access them via our links below. Additional resources for each webinar are also available.

(Unfortunately there was an issue with the recording. The PowerPoint content was not picked up for the first 30 minutes, but the verbal presentation is still accessible and visuals appear at 32 minutes into the presentation. You can use the slides available below to support the audio)