Date: Wednesday 23 – Saturday 26 May 2012

Venue: Manchester Regional Arena

This year Football 7-a-side will once again join the BT Paralympic World Cup adding an exciting and invigorating sport with world class teams descending on the City of Football, Manchester.

Football 7-a-side is an adaption of association football for athletes with cerebral palsy and other neurological disorders, including stroke and traumatic brain injury and will be staged at the Manchester Regional Arena at Sportscity. The four-day competition will see GB battle it out against fierce competition from teams from around the globe representing the Americas, Europe and the Rest of the World. The Teams will also be hoping to accumulate points in the race to win the BT Paralympic World Cup overall Competition Trophy which will be presented to the team with the most points across all sports on the last day of the BT Paralympic World Cup.

Facts about Football 7-a-side

The sport is played with modified FIFA rules.

Modifications include a reduced field of play, a reduction in the number of players, elimination of the offside rule and permission for one-handed throw-ins.

Matches consist of two thirty-minute halves, with a fifteen-minute half-time break.

Classifications:

Players competing in Football 7-a-side are given a sport class based on their level of disability. Eligible classes are:

C5: Athletes with difficulties when walking and running, but not in standing or when kicking the ball
C6: Athletes with control and co-ordination problems of their upper limbs, especially when running
C7: Athletes with hemiplegia
C8: Minimal disability athletes; they must meet eligibility criteria and have an obvious impairment that   has impact on the sport of football.

Teams must field at least one class C5 or C6 player at all times. No more than two players of class C8 are permitted to play at the same time