Paralympic draws for football 7-a-side revealed

Ukraine highlights Group A, while reigning World and Paralympic champions Russia are in Group B. 09 May 2016
Imagen
Ukraine football 7-a-side team - London 2012

Ukraine football 7-a-side team in action during the London 2012 Paralympic Games

ⒸGetty Images
By NPC Ireland and IPC

The draw for the CP football competition at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games was held on Saturday (7 May) during the 2016 International Federation for Cerebral Palsy Football (IFCPF) Pre-Paralympic Tournament in Salou, Spain.

Paralympic and world champions Russia headline Group B, which also includes the Netherlands, Argentina and the USA.

The 2015 World Championship runners-up Ukraine lead the way in Group A. Ukraine, who are fresh off their victory from the Pre-Paralympic Tournament, will be pitted against Ireland, Great Britain and Paralympic host nation Brazil, third-place finishers from the 2015 Worlds.

Speaking about the draw, Irish head coach JJ Glynn said: “It’s the toughest draw we could have got but on a positive, we have played two of the three teams we will face in Rio this week [during the 2016 Pre-Paralympic Tournament] so we know where we are in relation to them, and we know what we need to do to beat them.

“So for now, it’s heads down, work hard and we are looking forward to Rio – nothing comes easy, we always knew that. At the end of the day, we’ve made it to Rio, we didn’t make it to London so we are going to seize this chance and show the world what we can do.”

Football 7-a-side competitions in Rio will be held 8-16 September in the Deodoro Stadium.

Group A (World rankings in brackets)

Ukraine (2), Brazil (3), Ireland (5), Great Britain (7)

Group B

Russia (1), Netherlands (4), Argentina (6), USA (8)

__

Sport fans from around the world can now buy their Paralympic tickets for Rio 2016 from authorised ticket resellers (ATRs).

The IPC’s Global ATR is Jet Set Sports, and Rio 2016 tickets and packages can be purchased on the CoSport website.

Residents of Brazil can buy 2016 Paralympics tickets directly from the Rio 2016 website.