Football seven-a-side

Eligible impairment types:

Athetosis
Hypertonia
Ataxia

Sport classes

As football seven-a-side is a team sport, athletes from different sport classes together make up a team. This is managed through sport-technical rules, explained below. Each athlete is allocated one of the following four sport classes:

FT5

In this sport class, athletes have hypertonia in both lower limbs and to some degree in both upper limbs. The players have difficulties when running, turning and stopping because of an activity limitation in the lower limbs.

FT6

Athletes are affected by co-ordination and balance difficulties in all four limbs and trunk due to ataxia or athetosis. FT6 players typically have difficulties in dribbling the ball when running, accelerating and stopping.

FT7

This sport class is designated to hemiplegic players, meaning that only one side of their body is affected, causing the players to walk and run with a limp. The player has limited knee pick up when sprinting and also has an asymmetrical stride length. The player has difficulty pivoting and balancing on the impaired side and therefore often pivots on the unaffected side and may kick with the affected foot.

FT8

This sport class describes the minimum impairment eligible for football 7-a-side. These are athletes with minor degrees of activity limitation from any of the above classes. Therefore, you may not see the impact of the impairment when watching the athlete run or control the ball. However, involuntary muscle contractions and hesitation before explosive movements do constitute activity limitations in comparison to able-bodied players.

Sport technical rules

In order to ensure a fair game between two teams, each team (seven players) has to have one FT5 or FT6 player on the field at all times and is not allowed to have more than one FT8 players on the field.