The FA Disability Football Strategy aims to ensure that young people not only have the opportunity to play, whatever their ability, but those talented players are developed to reach their full potential.

The player pathway (disability) is a pyramid of participation identifying the key elements needed in foundation, through participation and performance to drive excellence at the apex of the pathway. Over the past years as The FA seeks to develop further opportunities for disabled players and coaches the missing parts of this pyramid have slowly come into place ensuring that a clear pathway is available for disabled people.

The original pathway has now been progressed and developed to include the initiatives that impact on the programme. In many instances the County FAs are integral to the development of the programme on a local level, ensuring strategic placement of resources and providing the framework for partners to work and deliver to.

The actual delivery of activity is undertaken by a wide variety of partners, in particular the importance of the Football in the Community Schemes must be recognised as they have embraced football for disabled people and forged excellent relationships with County FAs and are having an impact on local provision.

The pathway shown ensures the best young players receive quality coaching and are tracked, there has been an emergence of school to club links, the development of County Disability Coaching Centres to focus work with the U17 age group, as adults will be catered for through the regional competition structure.

With the development of the Whole Sport Plan, it is essential that the disability pathway and all initiatives are developed with long term athlete development (LTAD) principles as a key element:

·Player centred approach

·Makes full use of the critical or sensitive periods of adaptions (growth spurts)

·Focuses on the need to develop physical literacy in all young people to ensure programmes are inclusive

·Recognises training/competition and recovery ratios

·Takes 10 to 12 years to reach elite level · Model is flexible to meet the needs of football for disabled people

Talent Identification Structure

Children - Talented under 17 players with a disability should have access to attend a County Coaching Centre. Any young disabled footballers wishing to get involved in the Coaching Centre at Stoke City Football Club should contact the Community Programme on 01782 592252.