EVERY PLAYER COUNTS
Over 14,000 children, young people and adults with disabilities were been introduced to football through our Every Player Counts programme.
The programme, was co-funded by EFL in the Community and Wembley National Stadium Trust (WNST), to offer the benefits of playing football to people with a wide range of disabilities. The landmark project was made possible thanks to a £1.1m donation from WNST in 2016 and further £500,000 in 2018. This was been WNST’s largest single charitable investment to date and its first England-wide grants programme.
The programme was funded from 2016 – 2022 and involved 28 EFL Clubs. The programmes, rather than focus on a one size fits all approach, was tailored to the specific needs of each local community.
The 28 EFL Club Community Organisations delivered activity covering a wide range of disability programmes including wheelchair football, football for visual impairment, learning difficulties, amputees and autism, giving many disabled people access to football for the first time.
Although individual programmes differed from club to club, the emphasis is always on increasing participation, improving health and championing the social benefits of taking part in football. Although the core funding is no longer available the programme continues to be delivered at local level by the Clubs.