The FIPFA Powerchair Football World Cup is coming to Australia from 15 to 20 October, 2023! Finally, after two Covid postponements, the Australian Poweroos are ready to take on the world in October this year! The tournament, hosted by the Australian Powerchair Football Association (APFA), will be held at the Quaycentre in Sydney Olympic Park and we need your help to get us over the line to fill a hole left when applied for Fed Government funding didn't eventuate. Help make this the most amazing tournament in the sport's history! Every little bit makes a difference!.

Powerchair football is a modified form of football designed for players who use powered wheelchairs for their daily mobility and independence. Metal footguards are attached to each specially-designed powerchair and act like an athlete’s ‘boots’ - enabling players to dribble, pass and shoot for goal with an oversized football (33cm in diameter). The chairs themselves cost upwards of $30,000 each!

This version of football is more important to the powerchair community that most could really describe. The sense of inclusion, play, competition, community, aspiration and achievement that this football provides, is profound.

And it’s an exciting game to watch. Think a combination of go-karting and foosball (table soccer), combining speed and tactical nous played by individuals with incredible acuity, and you have powerchair football.

Powerchair footballers live with profound challenges, but these hurdles are left behind when they take to the court. Severe conditions ranging from Muscular Dystrophy, Spinal Muscular Atrophy and Cerebral Palsy, quadriplegia and limb deficiencies mean these athletes have considerable support needs and require assistance of families and support staff in their daily lives. However, as with us all, it is football that drives them, and their version of football unites us all. Football is Australia’s most diverse and inclusive sport.

With each athlete requiring support people to compete, a sports powerchair along with their daily equipment, international travel, accommodation and more, the costs of hosting such a tournament are substantial. We want this year’s tournament to be the best one ever and show off this exciting version of the world game. Let us not allow these costs to deny these players their opportunity to achieve, and the chance to be world champions.

Defending champions, France, will be joined by other tournament favourites England and the USA. The Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Japan, Argentina and Uruguay complete the field. And our Australian Poweroos, featuring 2017 FIPFA Powerchair Football World Cup MVP Abdullah Karim, are also a very real chance.

Imagine, the Socceroos top 16 in the world. The Matildas, on home soil, leading the charge in the FIFA Women’s World Cup and then, in October, our Poweroos to complete what could be a monumental twelve months for Australian football.

Please donate, follow and watch your Australian Poweroos take on the world in October!

2023 FIPFA Powerchair Football World Cup Website