We are delighted to announce that we are sponsoring Ashford United FC Pan Ability U13’s this season. We wish all players the best of luck!
The team aims to help support individuals with disabilities to be able to play football and meet new people.
Founder and Manager Daniel Ambler said, “I started the team when my 9-year-old son who has Autism was left out of a “mainstream” team and was never invited to play due to his needs. I vowed to not let that happen to any other individuals locally and formed the Ability team. Within the first 2 weeks of advertising I was shocked to find that I had 17 players, all with different needs in a similar situation. I soon realised that there was a massive gap in our area and the closest team that catered for individuals with needs was Maidstone, 20 miles away.
We had a wonderful first year and our only rule was, regardless of someone’s ability or needs that everyone is treated the same and receives the same game time so everyone is included. After our first season I had so many messages from parents of different ages asking to join and I’m not a person to say no, so now I’m proud to say we have grown massively and support a fantastic 55 individuals with a variety of needs with ages between 6 and 45 and are continuing to grow each week. We are run by volunteers and parents and are completely non-profit with everything we raise going directly to the individuals we support.”
Together we are United.