IFCPF disappointed in IPC's decision to exclude CP Football from Paris 2024 sports programme

IFCPF is very disappointed that at today’s International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Governing Board meeting in London, the Board confirmed that the sport of CP Football was not selected be part of the Paris 2024 Sport Programme. Although CP Football is considered to be a viable sport.

Having been in close and open dialogue with the IPC and its staff throughout the entire process, the decision comes as a huge shock to all involved in the sport. Following such positive news from the IPC Governing Board meeting in Madrid (September 2018), that CP Football was the only new sport in addition to the 22 existing Paralympic sports that would remain in the process due to ‘IFCPF’s good work in building a strong and sustainable Para sport’, IFCPF expected to be confirmed as a sport on the Paris 2024 Sport Programme.
 

IPC have disclosed in their press release that CP Football is viable for inclusion in the Games: “The IPC reviewed 23 strong bids and all 23 sports were viable for inclusion in the Games, which underlines the growing strength of the Paralympic Movement", said IPC President Andrew Parsons.
 

Despite this strong bid, IPC have excluded CP Football from the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. "We explored every possible option to see how CP Football could fit into the sport programme. Clearly, the sport’s inclusion would have impacted the gender balance of the Games.  The only way to compensate this would have been to remove male athlete slots from other sports – a move that would then have resulted in 23 sports and additional costs – or not include another predominantly male sport. This move would have reduced the number of high support needs athletes, a move that would have gone against our guiding principles."
 

“Despite a strong bid and excellent progress made in the last four years, we decided not to include CP Football in the Paris 2024 sport programme.  I know the CP Football community will be disappointed at our decision, but if the sport continues to make progress and further develops the women’s game, then it will be in a much stronger position for inclusion in future Paralympic Games.”
 
United Game, Globally Respected
IFCPF would like to convey our sincere gratitude to all members of the CP Football family who make CP Football a United Game, Globally Respected. We would like to particularly thank our Advisory Panel and volunteers/staff who gave their expertise, experience and time in helping us to put forward a detailed and high quality application to represent our beautiful sport.
 

Though we have worked hard to be part of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, we shall continue in our endeavour to bring together all members of the CP Football Family to deliver future success for our sport and achieve the goals set out in our Strategic Plan 2019-2022. Our Strategic Priorities provide us with the key focus area to move forward in the worldwide development of CP Football.
 

In January 2015, both CPISRA and the newly formed IFCPF were very disappointed with the decision not to include CP Football in the Tokyo 2020 Sport Programme. Although efforts to change this decision were unsuccessful, IFCPF took on board the feedback received from the process and worked closely with the IPC in the ongoing development of our sport.
 

As an international Federation, we shall now be looking to the IPC for a detailed explanation and justification of this decision, followed by IFCPF undertaking all necessary actions to ensure inclusion of CP Football.
 

At this time, IFCPF requests that no direct communication is made to the IPC by athletes, members and supporters until we have a clear picture of the situation and received the IPC’s feedback.