Football for all must be the goal

Chris McElligott probably didn’t need any reminders as to football’s extraordinary ability to inspire but he got it anyway last October when Turkey claimed the inaugural European Amputee Football Championship at a heaving Vodafone Park in Istanbul with a 2-1 defeat of England.

Photo Caption: Launching Bohemians’ Amputee soccer team at Dalymount Park were Christy McElligott, FAI Football For All community coach; players Amanda King and James Conroy; and Mícheál Mac Donncha, the Lord Mayor of Dublin. Picture: Gary Carr/Inpho

Turkish football had been in shock since the 3-0 defeat inflicted on the senior national side three days earlier in the city of Eskisehir. The loss scuppered the nation’s hopes of reaching this summer’s World Cup and, bad and all as the result and its consequences were, the tame manner of it was much worse.