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England’s men’s amputee football team could miss the upcoming World Cup in Mexico due to a lack of funding – a prospect the team’s former head coach Scott Rodgers has called “criminal”.
The team, who are reigning Nations League champions, have set a GoFundMe target of £50,000 to take part in November’s tournament.
“I see how hard they (the players) work, I see how hard the staff work, I see the sacrifices they make and the families make,” Rodgers told BBC Breakfast.
“To get to this point now and potentially not be able to go, it’s really criminal.”
The Football Association funds other para-national teams, but funding for the amputee program was cut in 2006.
The England Amputee Football Association has since been established as a charity and relies on donations and volunteers to support a junior pathway as well as its men’s and women’s teams.
FA representatives shadowed the men’s amputee team at the 2022 World Cup and later proposed a fund, but it fell short of what they felt was needed.
“Our funding model is we come on television and people donate, and we’re very grateful for that — we want to be able to thank everyone individually for that — but that’s not a funding model that’s sustainable,” added Rogers.
“We have a good relationship with the FA, but the problem is that the information we are getting from them at the moment is that the funding is not available to be able to bring amputation football under the FA umbrella.”
In the 2024-25 season, the FA generated a total turnover of £516m with an operating profit of £6m.
Meanwhile, England’s men’s team earned £21.5 million in prize money for finishing third at this summer’s World Cup.
“It’s crazy. We’re kind of fighting against the system,” goalkeeper Thomas Atkinson said.
“A lot of the teams we’re competing against are full-time professionals, they’re paid every day by the club and governing body, their national teams fully support them in everything they do.
“We are certainly not one of those groups.”
The team have currently raised £32,427 of their £50,000 target.
Atkinson added, “We’re playing as a hobby in a sense. We have to pay to play where they’re paying to play.”
“I’m not even asking to get paid to play football, I just think we as an organisation, as England – one of the biggest countries in football – shouldn’t be paying our national team players to play in tournaments. It’s crazy, isn’t it?”
BBC Sport has contacted the Football Association for comment.
