Just over a week ago a group of UK politicians turned out at Wembley to play football under former FA Cup winning Coach Lawrie McMenemy against a Special Olympics team from the Leyton Orient Advanced Soccer School. McMenemy is in fact the President of the UK’s Special Olympics.
Following the game the Politicians put their hands into their pockets and donated UKL15,000 to the Special Olympic cause, the money going to the charity United Football whose aim is to break down barriers between children and adults with intellectual disabilities, by having them play in mixed football teams.
Excellent we hear you say, and very generous, and that is how it appears until you hear that unlike the Paralympics the Special Olympics receive absolutely no funding from the Government or the Lotteries fund in the UK.Britain has 1.2 million citizens with intellectual disabilities and questions are now quite rightly being asked as to why they are not benefitting from the London 2012 Olympics.
I thought the governments in Australia treated those with disabilities badly but this is right up there!