Qualla: 2011 CPISRA Football 7-a-side World Championships

2011 CPISRA Football 7-a-side World Championships: Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hans055, Public domain. On 17 June 2011, sixteen national football teams arrived in the Netherlands for a tournament that would end two weeks later with a London 2012 ticket on the line. The players were professionals and elite amateurs in the version of the sport called football 7-a-side - football played on a smaller pitch by seven players a side, with no offside and a one-handed throw-in allowed. All of the players were ambulant athletes with non-progressive brain injuries: cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, or stroke. They had trained for years. Some had played at previous world championships. Some were trying to win one for the first time. None of them had come to be inspirational. They had come to win matches.

Image: Hans055 | Public domain

2011 CPISRA Football 7-a-side World Championships: The Sport Itself

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hans055, Public domain. Football 7-a-side is recognizable football, but its rules are tuned to its athletes. Two thirty-minute halves with a fifteen-minute break. A pitch smaller than a full international. No offside, which encourages a more direct attacking game. A throw-in can be taken with one hand, ...

Image: Hans055 | Public domain

2011 CPISRA Football 7-a-side World Championships: Two Weeks, Sixteen Nations

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hans055, Public domain. The format followed the familiar shape of a World Cup. Sixteen teams were drawn into four groups of four for a round-robin opening stage; the top two from each group advanced to a knockout bracket for positions one through eight, and the bottom two played off for nine through six...

Image: Hans055 | Public domain

2011 CPISRA Football 7-a-side World Championships: Goals and Names

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hans055, Public domain. Wikipedia's record of the tournament is, in the end, a record of names. Eleven goals in the tournament for Michael Barker. Eleven for Brian Vivot. Nine for Wanderson Silva de Oliveira of Brazil. Gary Messett scored eight. Moslem Akbari, Fabio da Silva Bordignon, and Sam Larkins s...

Image: Hans055 | Public domain