Solvitur ambulando, as Saint Augustine is alleged to have remarked, is the idea that things can best be solved by walking – a theme clearly appreciated by John Croot, the man most associated with the invention of walking football in Chesterfield at the end of the 2000s.
Largely ridiculed until Sky Sports televised a match in 2017, the game for the over-50s demographic has proved so popular there are now more than 1,200 clubs in the UK, an international body – the Federation of International Walking Football Associations (FIWFA) – and at least 70 countries now playing the sport. It’s the next big thing, in case you didn’t know, and just to prove the point the first walking football World Nations Cup was held at St George’s Park last week over three days, with 28 countries officially accepted. I was picked to play in the tournament as captain of the Basque Country, affording me the privilege of a 3G-pitch perspective.
As the name implies, it’s a version of football in which running is banned. There are different variants of the game, but the six-a-side version with goalies was the one used by FIWFA in last week’s tournament. The other criteria applied tend to be universal – the ball can not go over head height, tackles can not be made from behind or from a player’s blind side and it’s a game of two halves, usually totalling 40 minutes. There were blue cards for sin-bins and red ones for seniors who got over-grumpy.
Read full source article here by Basque Country Captain, Phil Ball: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/aug/31/intense-the-day-i-captained-the-basque-country-in-walking-football
Author: The Walking Football
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