The FA has made a statement on behalf of the Great Britain Disability Football Association (GBDFA) after it was confirmed on Wednesday that Blind Football’s funding has been cut by UK Sport.
Speaking for the GBDFA, The FA’s National Manager for Disability Football, Jeff Davis, said: "We’re very disappointed to lose the UK Sport funding as we were only 310 days into a four year plan that would take us up to the Paralympics and Rio 2016.
"UK Sport had given us £1.3m over the four year period and The FA matched that by making a £1m investment which meant we could put a world class coaching programme in place for our squad with regular regional sessions for the players and full team training at St. George’s Park.
"The FA is one of the world leaders when it comes to disability football provision so it’s disappointing that we can no longer access the money given to us after London 2012 especially after our run of recent results which saw us beat Spain who are the current European champions.
"We’ll now have to assess all available options that will help keep our coaching programme in place so that we can give the team the best chance possible to qualify for Rio."
