In a nation where many of our top football players earn more than £125,000 a week, it seems bizarre that Team GB deaf Football is short of the same sum to compete in an International  competition next Summer. The Deaflympics is the oldest disability sports competition in the world, predating the Paralympics by 36 years. However because it is not part of the official Olympics, the funding which is supplied from the lottery to fund our Olympic success is not available to help the Deaf Football team to get to the event next Summer in Samsun in Turkey. Our team finished third in this summers Deaf World Cup in Italy, where they competed with teams from other nations such as Russia whose team are full time professionals. The first fundraising target is to raise £20,000 to pay for the deposit for the trip. However surely our Premier teams or an aspiring team like Brighton and Hove Albion could assist in their endeavours. This is about equality as well as about national pride. The Team have a twitter account @GBDeaf and there is more information about the competition and their fundraising needs on this webpage.