Football first, disability second for Scots' coach

Friday�s Local Hero: �There�s not much difference between the beach at Largs and the Copacabana,� deadpans Stuart Sharp, the gregarious coach of Scotland�s Cerebral Palsy football team.

There's not much difference between the beach at Largs and the Copacabana," deadpans Stuart Sharp, the gregarious coach of Scotland's Cerebral Palsy football team. His players, preparing in Ayrshire ahead of a voyage of discovery to Brazil for the world championships, might disagree.

Next week a 12-man squad will travel to South America as the lowest ranked and least experienced in the 16-team, seven-a-side competition. Those deficits, however, will be countered by the pride felt by a group often marginalised by sporting society as a consequence of strokes, acquired brain injuries or cerebral palsy.

Indeed, such is their desire to pull on a Scotland shirt, each of the players are actually paying to represent their country.

As the Scottish Football Association's development officer for disability football, Sharp conveys the impression of embarrassment at a scenario that asks these young men to pay £400 towards costs, as well as training fees, to become their nation's first representatives at the world event. The SFA, in conjunction with Scottish Disability Sport and other sponsors, are meeting the shortfall but the squad, and the four staff who will travel, are still labouring under a disadvantage.

"The other nations are supported fully by their FAs but the Scottish team is only part funded," admits Sharp, fully integrated into the offices of the governing body at Hampden Park. "England and the Republic of Ireland are fully funded and have been preparing in Macau and Beijing. We went to Largs."

That poverty, however, does not mean they are ill-equipped to face the world. The callow collective - seven of the 12 are under 21, with a further three under 24 - have been diligent in their preparations for the 60-minute matches, adhering to individually tailored training programmes and attending squad sessions twice a month in Stirling as well as residential camps on the Ayrshire coast.

Their competitiveness, too, has been honed by playing able-bodied SFA regional development squads, who have adopted systems similar to those of Argentina, China and Russia, the three sides waiting in the initial group stage. The exercises have been a success.

"We played an under-15 team and the great thing was the comments of the players - regardless of whether they were PC or not," enthuses Sharp. "Basically, they were saying they're just like us' and after the second game were getting stuck in to our lads and viewing it like any other game."

That bodes well for the challenges ahead. The Russians and Argentines are ranked in the top six, while the Chinese are expected to be in good shape ahead of the Paralympics next year, but the predicted 40C heat is a greater concern. Sharp confesses that the temperature necessitates tactical alterations, revealing that the role of a manager does not deviate in disabled football.

"We've got Argentina first and we're hoping adrenalin will carry us through," the coach admits, his concern tempered by knowing his side has improved since qualifying via the European Championship last summer. "But I genuinely think we can give one or two teams a fright because our ranking is from two years ago. Around 85% of the team has changed since then and friendly results have shown we're good enough to be in the top 10.

"The heat and humidity are a huge challenge but these boys are just like any other team. You've got some better than others and, as a coach, it's about how, tactically, you deal with that. What we're trying to do is make it football first and disability second."

That has become Sharp's mantra over the past three years.

Previously an SFA community coach, a sports development officer and on the staff at Queen's Park, the paucity of funding resulted in McDonalds paying his salary initially, before the governing body decided last year to integrate the job into the organisation. Now he is in situ on the sixth floor of the national stadium, his aim is to increase participation through grassroots development and coach education and convince his employers to afford his side the status of a fully affiliated national team.

"One of the selling points for me was that the position was about football and not disabilities," says Sharp, who has built the programme alone from scratch. "I think they took me on to investigate the area and see what potential was there and now they are starting to see the opportunities to develop disabled players. Numbers are increasing all the time and it's the fastest growing sport for disabled kids in Scotland.

"We're flying now and have maybe the best coach education programme in Europe but the biggest part of that process is saying to a kid okay, you may have a disability, but there's no reason why one day you can't still play for Scotland'. That's our aim and these guys going to Brazil have proved it."