The Legia Foundation is Co-Organising the EAFF Junior Camp 2023!

The Legia Foundation is Co-Organising the EAFF Junior Camp 2023!

The amputee football Junior Camp is coming back to Poland! The annual camp organized by the European Ampfootball Federation with the support of UEFA, in which children from all over the world take part, will take place in August in Warsaw on the football fields of Legia. It was during such camps that the current stars of European amp football were brought up.

Camps for children with limb defects have been a key point in the calendar of most young amputee football players in Europe for years. For the second time, Junior Camp will be held in Poland, this time on August 17-21, 2023. After six years, the event is returning to Warsaw. The idea was launched in 2016 in Dublin (Ireland). The next edition will be held in Warsaw (Poland), followed by Rome (Italy) and Walldorf (Germany), and after a two-year break caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the initiative was reactivated a year ago in Tbilisi (Georgia).

EAFF Junior Camp has been supported by UEFA for years, and this time the UEFA Foundation for Children also got involved in the project. 

Football is for everyone and plays a much bigger role in society than just sport. Congratulations to all the young amp football players who are giving their all and leading an active life. Believing in dreams will help them overcome many obstacles.

Urs Kluser, Secretary General of the UEFA Foundation

The Legia Foundation, which is the co-organizer of the event, also showed great enthusiasm and support. – 

We are very pleased that the next edition of the EAFF Junior Camp will take place on the grounds of Legia Warszawa. Our Foundation has been supporting the senior and junior sections of the amp football of Legia Warszawa for several years, so we had no doubts when the proposal to cooperate with the European Amp Football Federation appeared in the organization of this event.

Anna Mioduska , president of the Legia Foundation. 

She also emphasizes that this is a great opportunity to promote sport among people with disabilities.

We are convinced that children and their guardians will spend a wonderful time in Warsaw, improving their football skills, integrating and, above all, having fun and getting to know Warsaw. We will make every effort to ensure that our club and the entire city are remembered by everyone as accessible and friendly to people with disabilities.

Anna Mioduska.

Although the training camps take place in Europe and are organized by European federations, players from other continents have also participated in the Junior Camp for several years. Until now, it was young amputee players from Costa Rica and El Salvador, and this time, for the first time, children from Palestine will appear in addition to them.

The annual EAFF Junior Camp is a unique event, because children from different countries come with their parents and coaches for three days to play sports, exercise together and integrate. The project is growing rapidly, during its first edition several children participated in it, and this year 100 participants are expected in Warsaw! The inaugural training camp in Ireland in 2016 marked the beginning of children’s amp football in Europe and the world, and now the EAFF Junior Camp is one of the most important events every year. Its importance is evidenced not only by support, e.g. UEFA, but also the fact that the World Ampfootball Federation (WAFF) intends to organize similar camps in Tanzania and Costa Rica in 2023.

These training camps are also a great opportunity for children’s sports development. Participants of the first editions are already stars of senior amp football. Krystian Kapłon, Igor Woźniak, Jakub Kożuch and Jacek Konieczny were at the camp in 2016, and today they have played matches and goals in the first team of Poland (Woźniak regularly plays in the national team, but he is a goalkeeper, so he has not scored a goal yet), and the first three have already won bronze medals at the European Championships and silver medals for advancing to the final of the EAFF Champions League.

The most important thing, however, is that every grouping is eagerly awaited by children who meet new friends from all over the world with great openness and enthusiasm.

I am glad that this time the camp will be held in Poland, because together with other teams we will be able to visit Warsaw and play football. I’m counting on great fun and I’m very curious about the training camp.

Michał Grabowski , one of the young amp football players.

It is also worth mentioning the incredible popularity of materials from junior camps in the media, which even more helps in promoting the amp football idea and reaching new fans, players and even countries with it. Every year, UEFA eagerly brags about supporting the training camps in its communication channels, which has already resulted in the introduction of the discipline to several European countries, and Facebook posts about last year’s camp reached millions, which in turn translated into many messages from amputees and people with limb defects from various countries that want to start playing amp football.

Poland is one of the world leaders in children’s amp football. Junior Amp Futbol, ​​as this is the name of the nationwide training program for children from all provinces, is based on weekend training camps organized every month, to which young players come together with their guardians. Amp Futbol Polska invites new players all the time, and participation in all training camps and even in international camps is completely free.