Football 7-a-side Paralympic Draw complete for Rio 2016

The draw for the Football 7-a-side competition at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games was held on Friday 6th May, during the 2016 IFCPF Pre-Paralympic Tournament in Salou, Spain.

Drawn by Paulo Cruz, Football Manager for the Rio Games, and Carles Muñoz, La Federació Esportiva Catalana de Paralítics Cerebrals (FECPC), the event brought together players, coaches and spectators around the world anticipating who will be drawn in each group fro Rio 2016.

IFCPF Technical Director credited the hard work of the players, saying, "I'm convinced the players are looking forward to this draw, they work for a four year period very hard and now we are almost there, for this special event."

Paralympic and world champions Russia were drawn in Group A where they will face fierce competition from the Netherlands, the most successful country in football 7-a-side at the Paralympic Games, along with Parapan American Games runners-up Argentina and a strong USA side.

The 2015 IFCPF World Championships runners-up Ukraine lead the way in Group B. 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. 

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

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.”

Thank you to FECPC

IFCPF would like to thank FECPC and all of their staff who made the Paralympic Draw a professional and exciting experience for all fans of Football 7-a-side.

Paralympic Tickets

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.