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Road Map to Return to Powerchair Football

Background & Survey

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:

Open Survey Results

Survey results

We are delighted that the majority of respondents were players, with more than 140 completing the survey.

Almost 90% of respondents strongly agreed (either 4 or 5) with the WFA’s decision to cancel activity in March.

At the time of completion (mid July), the majority of respondents feel safe to return to activity in either an individual setting or in a small group environment. 

As our questions move towards activity in larger group settings and involve multiple days of activity and potential hotel stop-overs, the majority feel unsafe in undertaking such activities at this time. 

Whilst the majority of respondents feel unsafe with a return to regional activity at the time of their response, the majority is lower than national league participation.

Close Survey Results

Roadmap to Return

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.

Roadmap Caveats

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.

Risk Assessment Process

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.

Implications for the 2020/21 season

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.

How we will use the road map going forward

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.