Matt Dixon: Please support Farsley Celtic Deaf Football Club in the Deaf Champions League (BSL)

You can donate and support Farsley here https://gofund.me/3b19b9ef

Farsley Celtic Deaf FC were formed 6 years ago, we are based in Leeds, West Yorkshire. We compete in the England Deaf Football North league as well as the local Hearing leagues.

The clubs ethos is very much about respect, being humble and always trying your best.

We have over 30 players registered in our hearing and deaf league squads. All of them are deaf. For many of the players who join us, it is their first time interacting with other deaf people.

Many have felt isolated while attempting to play for hearing teams and end up leaving feeing frustrated and deflated. It is truly wonderful to witness young people be liberated and finally feel part of something that they genuinely fit in to, mixing with like minded people who understand them. F

arsley Celtic is a family, all with different levels of deafness and communication methods. By being a part of the team they finally feel at home within a football club, where they feel they belong.

We are a very different club to the past. We now have 5 players representing England Deaf Men, Joe Dixon, Harry Boorman, Will Palmer, Cavell Donaldson and Henry Bowe. As well as Hashim Mahmood, Charlie Parker-Fairbaine who are a part of the England Development squad. There are others who have been invited for trials coming up later this month.

The team has been improving year on year. Earlier this year we won the England Deaf Football North league for the 3rd time and last June we won the overall championship by beating St John’s FC 3-2 in a thrilling final which was shown live on BT sport. This was the first time a Deaf football match had been shown on mainstream TV…. And on the same day we won the FA disability cup!

As a result, Farsley Celtic Deaf FC have qualified to compete for the Deaf champions league title, the competition will be taking place, in Warsaw, Poland between the 26th June – 1st July 2023.

It is estimated that this trip will cost in excess of £20000, this is to get our team over there, hotel, food, transport, training kit and physio costs.

The boys are ready to give this their best shot and hope to be crowned as champions of Europe. The boys know this is a self funded trip, most of them are students or in low income jobs.

We desperately need your help to fulfill their dream, the more money we raise via our Go Fund Me campaign, the lower the cost will be for the players themselves.

FCDFC is run by volunteers, not one person involved receives any income. I’m one of the volunteers, I joined the club 3 years ago as a goal keeper for the hearing league games, then as goalkeeper coach and I now help out as  team interpreter and assistant manager for Kris Burns, the gaffer!

It not just us, we have a big team of dedicated volunteers, who all work tirelessly, supporting the players and to help keep this amazing club going. We put a lot of time in to making sure things go as smooth as possible, all of us do this because we feel that we are a part of something very special.

We do not receive any FA grants or financial assistance, we are entirely self funded and rely on sponsorship and support from our friends and family to enable us to continue to run this club and to be able to compete year on year.

Because we’ve qualified for DCL we realise that we cannot afford to compete without extra help. The boys deserve this and they deserve the opportunity.

Every one of them is an exceptional human being, that any parent would be proud of. If you can help in any way it will be greatly appreciated, with your help we can try and bring the trophy back to Yorkshire!

You can donate and support us here https://gofund.me/3b19b9ef