As UEFA Euro 2024 kicks off, walking football for people with Parkinson’s is starting to take off in Europe. In the Basque Country, Jesus Etxebarria, president of the Basque Country Walking Football Association, tells us how he set up the ASPARBI team, one of the first regular walking football teams for people with Parkinson’s in mainland Europe.
In the UK, walking football has taken off since it was first introduced to people with Parkinson’s from around the UK at Watford Football Club training ground in May 2021; now there are at least 25 Parkinson’s teams in England and Wales, and the sport is growing in Scotland too.
However, while European countries often enter national teams with Parkinson’s to play walking football in tournaments such as the Ray Kennedy Cup and the UK’s Cure Parkinson’s Cup, there aren’t many teams playing the sport on a regular basis in mainland Europe – but the ASPARBI team of walking footballers with Parkinson’s in the Basque Country is one of the first. It was set up just over six months ago by Jesus Etxebarria, president of the Basque Country Walking Football Association.
Jesus, 69, also plays walking football and although he does not have Parkinson’s, he was keen to get people with the condition playing it. To drum up interest, he showed members of ASPARBI, the local Biscay Parkinson’s Association, a video of Joe Gregory, an English walking footballer with Parkinson’s who plays for England, Fighting Fit Football, and Berks and Bucks Neuro walking football group, doing keepy-uppies. Joe is famous for doing a record number of these during various challenges. Jesus then encouraged the members of the Association to give walking football a go and was pleased by the turnout for the first Parkinson’s walking football session.
READ MORE at source: https://parkinsonseurope.org/2024/06/14/walking-football-sporting-craze-taking-over-europes-parkinsons-community/
Author: The Walking Football
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