III Basque League of Adapted Futsal

The Third Edition of the Adapted Futsal League for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities, organized by the Basque Federation of Adapted Sports and the Athletic Club Foundation has been presented on Wednesday, 4 November, in the Kirol Etxea Building Press room (Miribilla-Bilbao). Present for the event were Joseba González, of the Basque Federation of Adapted Sports, Athletic Club Board member Jokin Garatea, and Kepa Allika, of the Basque Football Federation (FVF) along with representatives of the clubs participating in this league.

The competition, which begins this weekend, is an innovative and pioneering event in the Spanish state whose objective is to facilitate the practice of football to intellectually challenged persons, within a structured competition, seeking the normalization of the sport for people with disabilities as well as collaborate in the process of social inclusion, and promotion of healthy leisure for which associations of the intellectually handicapped work to achieve.

In the competition, which is divided in three categories, a total of fourteen teams and more than one hundred fifty players from the main associations of people with intellectual disabilities in Euskadi (Gorabide, Uribe Costa, Geu Be, Atzegi and Apdema) will be participating, as well as the Gipuzkoa Federation of Adapted Sports which will take part in the league for the first time by contributing a team.

The categories of the League are determined by the degree of intellectual disability of the participants and therefore of their level of understanding and application of the rules. In that sense, the first category (Division 1) is a competition with the same rules as conventional Futsal, whereas in the second and third categories (Divisions 2 and 3) the rules adapt to the level of understanding on the part of participating players, with the assistance of the reinforcing monitors that assist them in practicing the sport.

The competition will be disputed each weekend in the various localities of the clubs, from November 2014 to June 2015. At the end of the season, a Copa will be played at the Athletic Club facilities in Lezama, on a festive day in which all the participants will receive a prize in recognition of their effort throughout the year.

In the two previous editions, the objectives established by organizers have been amply met. The creation of this league covers the demand of these clubs in organizing a Futsal competition, sought-after for a long time, by helping participants in the process of social inclusion through the acquisition and/or reinforcement of social skills related to the practice of sport such as teamwork, learning to win or lose, the assumption of rules, etc, as well as the enjoyment of leisure and participative sport.

The Basque League of Adapted Futsal for intellectually handicapped people is organized by the Basque Federation of Adapted Sports and the Athletic Club Foundation and counts on the collaboration of the Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Alava Federations of Adapted Sports, as well as with the Real Sociedad Foundation and the Foundation 5+11.