Football legends Gary Neville and Steven Gerrard have donated £10,000 to the England Women’s Deaf Football Team to help pay for their upcoming tournament.
The World Deaf Football Championships, first started back in 2008, are taking place in Malaysia this September and the England Women’s team needs £100,000 to take part in the competition.
However, sadly the team no longer receives money from the FA after they shifted funding to the futsal team — who, prior to winning the Euros in 2022, were also financially restricted in 2019 — and so must fundraise in other ways if they want to enter the tournament which runs every four years.
With that in mind, Gary Neville and Steven Gerrard generously donated £5,000 each to help send them to the championships in just a few months’ time. Classy stuff, lads.
52 days left to find £37.6k or the England Deaf Women’s Football team can’t go to the World Cup 2023 in Malaysia
Neville and Gerrard have put a total of £10,000 towards sending the Women’s deaf team to the WDFC 2023, just the fourth time the competition has been held.
Speaking to BBC Radio London, current player Claire Stancliffe expressed her gratitude to the England legends, saying that “it’s really nice to have their support” and insisting that she only got in touch with the former Manchester United fullback to ask him to share their appeal on his socials.
Nevertheless, after the Deaflympian and four-time bronze medallist once again made the 48-year-old aware of their financial obstacles, he wasted no time in offering to put £5k towards the fund, with the Liverpool legend quickly matching the donation.
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They are the only footballing figures to offer their support either, as the likes of Everton defender Conor Coady, Crystal Palace women’s player Leigh Nicol and many more have encouraged others to help spread the word and hopefully do their bit.
Whilst I’m really disappointed to hear the news that @GB_DeafFootball women’s team are having to raise money to attend the ultimate dream of a World Cup… it’s really important we all play our small part in making this possible 🙏 https://t.co/viRzzypiH9
Informing the team about the withdrawal of funding last month, the FA justified its position by stating that they wanted to provide more regular international opportunities for players and that numerous conversations with players, staff and other figures in the deaf football community were taken into consideration.
Stancliffe, 34, said, “I’m really disappointed in the decision but at the same time I respect it, I’m just trying to focus on what we need to do now to get the team there.”
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The World Championships start on 20 September and end on 8 October, but even with multiple fundraisers now running, they are still a little ways off the target with just 46 days now left to go.
You can donate to the England Women’s Deaf Football Team fundraiser via GoFundMe or contribute to the Deaf Sports and Football Foundation (DSFF) directly HERE.
Featured Image — Sky Sports/Simon Harris (via Twitter)/BT Sport
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Former Man United man Bastian Schweinsteiger sheds light on brutal exile by José Mourinho
Danny Jones
Former footballer and ex-Manchester United man Bastian Schweinsteiger has opened up on his turbulent time at the club, revealing some fairly shocking details surrounding his exile from the first team at the hands of José Mourinho.
The Germany and Bayern Munich legend retired back in 2019, going down as arguably one of the most revered midfielders in Europe, but some of the latter chapters in his career were less idyllic than they should have been after moving to Old Trafford.
Schweinsteiger joined the Red Devils in 2015 as a seasoned pro by Louis van Gaal but ended up enjoying only a very limited amount of playing time before ultimately departing in 2017 under the Mourinho regime in less than affable circumstances, to say the least.
The 39-year-old has never really opened up on what went ‘wrong’ during his time at Man United until now, revealing to Gary Neville that was quite literally banned from going into the dressing room on practically his first day under the Portuguese coach.
Bastain Schweinsteiger reveals he was banned from training with the United first team by José Mourinho
A pretty strange way to welcome a Champions League and World Cup winner with eight Bundesliga titles and a cabinet full of other cups to his name, let’s put it that way.
While it’s still unclear as to why exactly José didn’t want him around the first-team squad, Schweinsteiger says that former football director and then-head of development John Murtough – who recently left the club after 11 years – told him he couldn’t train with the senior players simply “because the coach said so”.
Already considered a veteran of the sport at this point, he goes on to detail how, ever the consummate professional, he proceeded to train with the under-16s instead after being given no alternative, which kicked off months of largely unexplained exile and only making very sparse appearances for the team.
Neville‘s face is understandably aghast at the revelations, going on to admit he was left “stunned” by what he was hearing and labelling Schweinsteiger’s treatment not only “embarrassing” for the club and as a fan but verging on the “illegal”.
He only made four appearances for United while ‘The Special One’ was in charge.The controversy was never made public at the time.Credit: Wikimedia Commons)/Дмитрий Голубович
Citing the only real reason that was given for banishment was that Mourinho claimed he “didn’t see [him] happy here at United”, although he did qualify that this was around the time of his injury when he also spent time recovering in Germany.
José did eventually go on to apologise for his treatment in those early days, admitting that his decision fell into the category of “feeling sorry for what I did” and in turn granted him the move to his final club Chicago Fire where he spent the last days of his playing career.
Were he to have been given a different introduction to the club and eventually integrated into the first-team squad in a less confrontational way, his time at Manchester United could have been very different.
You can watch Bastian Schweinsteiger’s full interview on The Overlap, including what he made of other players that José found ‘problematic’ like Paul Pogba down below. Safe to say it’s quite an eye-opener.
Featured Images — The Overlap (via YouTube)/Дмитрий Голубович
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Rodri takes a swipe at Real Madrid tactics as Manchester City bow out of the Champions League on penalties
Danny Jones
Manchester City star Rodri has taken aim at Real Madrid for their tactics in Wednesday night’s Champions League quarter-final as the Blues bowed out of the competition on penalties.
Rodri, who scored the winning goal in the UCL final to secure the treble for Man City last season, cut an understandably disappointed figure in the post-match interviews as his side ultimately conceded the first of their three trophies in a tense night at the Etihad Stadium.
Speaking to the media in the tunnel, the Spaniard was asked if he saw the game as simply being a case of two elite teams cancelling each other out and only being separated by small margins, to which he simply replied: “To be honest, today I saw only one team”.
The 27-year-old went on to note that Madrid’s gameplan was obviously to defend and “to [make us] suffer” but that they always knew how tough Carlo Ancelotti’s team would be to come up against in such a crucial tie like this.
"To be honest, today I saw only one team"
"In my opinion we should go through"
Rodri on Real Madrid's tactics, after they beat Manchester City on penalties in the Champions League quarter-finals.#ManCity#MCFC#UCL
Rodri criticises Madrid as he suggests only one team came to play.
Nevertheless, Rodri reiterated that he believes City “deserved to go through” based on their performance across the two games and given how much they tried to play during the home leg.
While Madrid were always going to try and frustrate their opposition and trying and stop Guardiola‘s squad from playing the more free-flowing, expansive game that so often suits them, they did have plenty of moments where the game looked more open and like a counter could come off at either end.
Ultimately, though, an early goal for the visitors from Rodrygo was enough to give Madrid breathing room for the majority of the game and even after Kevin De Bruyne’s explosive equaliser – which saw the stadium erupt as it looked like they might go on to win it – they still managed to eke out extra time.
As for Pep himself, he was predictably cautious of getting drawn into any big exclamations and made sure to hold back, simply reiterating Rodri’s sentiment that the performance was “outstanding” and that given stats like 32 shots attempted (a third of those on target), he could not question their commitment.
"We did absolutely everything… but they are in the semifinals and we are not."@AnitaNnekaJones chats with Man City manager Pep Guardiola after the defending champs fall to Real Madrid 🎙️ pic.twitter.com/MtFjD3zaeQ
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) April 18, 2024
While Rodri had a sly dig at Madrid, Pep chose to focus only on his players instead.
The admittedly ridiculous-sounding ‘Treble-Treble’ might now be off the table but with two trophies still left to defend and another potential record break on the cards if they manage to win a fourth Premier League in a row, there’s still more than enough glory to play for.
City’s next big fixture is the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea this Saturday as rivals Manchester United take on Coventry City in the other draw on Sunday.
Safe to say it’s looking very much like we could get back-to-back Manchester derby FA Cup finals.
As for the title race, the Blues have a slim two-point cushion at the top of the table but with Arsenal and Liverpool slipping up last weekend, it could prove to be the key slip-up they needed to now set the tone and finish the season strong as they often do. It’s going to be a blockbuster few weeks.
Danny Jones -
11th May 2023 
