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England Disability Teams

Draw made for Euros

The England Learning Disability squad will face Hungary, France and Portugal in the group stages of this summer's INAS - FID European Championships after the draw was made in Manchester on Monday afternoon.

Tournament venue, Curzon Ashton FC, hosted the draw with The FA's Director of Football Development Sir Trevor Brooking and Manchester City and England defender Micah Richards as special guests.

The competition will take place over July and August with England's campaign starting against France at Manchester SportCity on July 20.

Portugal are up next at Curzon Ashton's Tameside Stadium on July 23 with the group stage concluding against Hungary on July 26 at Boundary Park, home of Oldham Athletic.

New England Head Coach, Alan Gillett, can't wait for the tournament to begin: "I'm confident that we can do very well in the summer. If you don't think you're going to win it then there's no point in entering."

Gillett's reign began with a 2-0 friendly loss against European Championship holders Holland at Curzon Ashton on Sunday and Gillett believes the game will have given his side valuable experience ahead of the European Championships.

"The Dutch are a very skilful side and they've set a benchmark for what we must do this summer.

"Holland have an excellent disability football setup and meet for regular coaching every month. It would be great if we could do something similar in the run-up to the Championships, as we've got a great set of experts on the backroom team with the likes of Lyndon Lynch and Jeff Davis."

Sir Trevor Brooking is also confident that the European Championships will be a great success.

"I'm sure it will be a good occassion and it's brilliant to have someone like Micah Richards involved in today's draw as it gives everyone involved a massive boost," he said.

"I'm told that both Holland and Poland are strong sides so Alan Gillett will be pleased that they won't feature in our group games.

"I know what it's like to play in a tournament for your country and it's a great feeling. Hopefully, the Manchester area will get behind the England team this summer as it's a very good standard of football and will help raise the profile of the disability game."

Holland and Poland are joined in Group B by Germany and Sweden.

To see the full schedule of games, click here.