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Deaf Football Clubs
There are currently about 25 active deaf football clubs in Great Britain – most of them compete in mainstream football leagues around Britain. The majority of clubs compete in the British Deaf Football Cup annually, which has been running since 1959.
Clubs from England also compete for the English Deaf Cup, and Scottish clubs participate in the Scottish Deaf Cup.
A Proud History
Deaf Football in Great Britain has a very proud and strong history, dating back to 1871, a history that is virtually unknown to the majority of the followers of football in Britain.
Deaf Football clubs have been around longer than the majority of all the teams in the English and Scottish Football League pyramid. Great Britain boasts the oldest deaf football club in the world in Glasgow Deaf Athletic Football Club, founded in 1871 and are still running strong to date.
Glasgow Deaf Athletic Football Club is one of the oldest clubs in the world, set up only eleven years after Sheffield FC who are known to be the first football club in the world. Glasgow Deaf Athletic Football Club was established before famous clubs such as Rangers FC (1873), Celtic (1881) and Manchester United (1878).
Professional Deaf Footballers
Several deaf footballers have managed to reach the professional ranks over the last century, but the number is not large – a total of around a dozen have been noted. Some have reached the highest levels of the game, while others have had only limited opportunities to succeed at the top level: some accounts suggest that yet more appear to have been rejected because of their inability to hear, rather than because of their footballing abilities. Those deaf footballers achieving league status include instances of players born either profoundly deaf at an early age, or during their playing careers. However it is no doubt significant that no profoundly deaf players – as in professional players who became deafened – have appeared in professional teams during the last twenty years or so.
Professional Deaf Footballers
- Billy Nesbitt – Burnley
- Cliff Bastin – Arsenal and England
- Raymond Drake – Stockport County
- Rodney Marsh – QPR, Manchester City, Fulham and England
- Jimmy Case – Liverpool, Southampton and Brighton