More than a Match: The Role of Football in Britain’s Deaf Community

Abstract

The University of Central Lancashire has undertaken a major research project into the role of
football within the deaf community in Britain. As well as reconstructing the long history of deaf
involvement in football for the first time, the project has also focused on the way in which
football has provided deaf people with a means of developing and maintaining social contacts
within the community, and of expressing the community’s cultural values. This article will
draw on primary data gathered from interviews conducted with people involved in deaf football
in a variety of capacities. During the course of these interviews, a number of themes and issues
emerged relating to the values and benefits those involved with deaf football place on the game,
and it is these which are explored here.