The Vierzon Football Club plays the adapted sport card

Since last season, the VFC has organized training for PEP residents. The Vierzon Football Club is now affiliated with the adapted sports federation. For nothing in the world, Anthony, a worker at Esat des Pep de Vierzon, would not miss this Monday morning training: ” I'm a big football fan! My favorite player is a goalkeeper, it's Mike Maignan. Otherwise I really liked Lacazette who played for Lyon, but he's a striker. It’s a pleasure for me to come. And it does me good, in terms of cardio, when we play small matches.”

Of course, we're starting from quite a distance. Samuel Pomary, sports presenter at Vierzon Football Club, works on the basics: ” You have to be very patient, and repeat, repeat and repeat. But eventually it fits. We adapt to this audience. For example, I don't use a whistle so as not to scare them. I avoid shouting. We work smoothly, in synchronization. Football is all about passing. So we work a lot on control and passing with the flat of the foot. Some have made good progress. They show great enthusiasm.”

The vision of the game is limited, as is the occupation of space, but the important thing is not there for Lisa Moriset, specialist educator: ” They are ready very early in the morning to come to training. It gives them an activity, an outing. We sometimes went to the city stadium before, but here the structures are much bigger. It's more pleasant and above all the activity is well supervised. We would like to be able to bring some of them to compete in adapted sports initially and why not then meet ordinary people.”

The step is high. The president of the Vierzon Football Club decided to go there step by step. First, by mixing able-bodied and disabled schedules. As for integrating players with disabilities into competitions, that's something else: ” In official competitions, this can be a problemanalyzes Marvin Sampson, president of the VFC. We must not put their safety at risk and we must respect the regulations of the French football federation. But I think it is possible for one-off events. I'm thinking of handicap night, or hondicap football in which we participate. Our idea is first of all to familiarize both audiences, able-bodied and disabled. Let them meet at the stadium, rub shoulders to break down preconceptions. And we will go gradually. We also train our facilitators. Football must be a vector of openness to others.”