Thursday 08th July 2021 – Johannesburg: Special Olympics South Africa (SOSA) and IBERCUP signed a first of its kind agreement in Johannesburg this week. IBERCUP, the biggest and most important international youth football organization partners with organisations and sport-based entities in the countries it operates in to uplift and provide assistance for youth development, training, talent identification and infrastructure.

IBERCUP pledges that no matter what a child’s social-economic standing, race, colour, gender or medical challenges, all children deserve the opportunity to participate in the sport of football. To deliver on this mandate, IBERCUP has partnered with Special Olympics South Africa to build a comprehensive program that will become a benchmark for inclusive sport in South Africa. Dr Mathews Phosa, Chairperson of Special Olympics South Africa discussed what the partnership would mean for SOSA athletes, “As Special Olympics we are very pleased to be able to create this opportunity for our athletes and coaches. Normally, youth with an intellectual disability in South Africa are completely excluded from mainstream sports and competition opportunities, despite having the ability to compete. Society focuses on their disability and not on their ability and, as such, they do not have access to the same facilities, trained coaches, support and opportunities as their mainstream counterparts.

The partnership with IBERCUP is groundbreaking not only for our athletes but for our coaches as well. It will enable them to benefit from the coaching and skills development offered by the international football powerhouse – an opportunity they would never have had otherwise. It will also allow them to participate in IBERCUP, and hopefully for some, to take their rightful place on the playing fields of international football. We commend IBERCUP for their commitment to inclusive sport and the athletes of Special Olympics.

We hope that other sporting organisations in South Africa follow suit, and we look forward to the day when all sport, and our society as a whole, is truly inclusive.” Michael Bender CEO of IBERCUP South Africa said at the recent signing, “We are extremely excited at the potential that this partnership offers both parties, the partnership with SOSA and our stakeholders creates a unique platform to share knowledge, transfer skills, train coaches and provide best practice to integrate the Special Olympics footballers into mainstream football, and to get more of their players onto the fields. IBERCUP will host the coaches from Special Olympics at the upcoming LaLiga Camps coaching clinics to be held in Gauteng in August and we will extend this to the Cape and KZN regions later in the year.