The squad is ready, the players are raring to go - however we're not talking about the 1st team or even the reserves, but another important team in the Green & White family. SK Rapid Vienna are the first professional Austrian club to have founded a team for players with disabilities.The side is called SK Rapid Special Needs Team, and consists of 16 players in an age range of 16-35, who have different physical and mental disabilities. The players disabilities differ in seriousness, but a requirement for the team was obviously the ability to take part on the football pitch. "When we were picking the team the sporting capabilities weren't the main criteria though. That the players identified with the club Rapid Vienna and the squad were important selection criteria", explained Manager Peter Grechtshammer: "also extremely important was the individual's behavior within the group with regards fair play and team spirit. In the SK Rapid Special Needs Team we still look for a level of discipline, at the end of the day your still representing the Austrian record champion!"Last week the selected players came together for the first time in the Hanappi Stadium - moving forwards training will take place on a weekly basis. The players, who were drafted in in cooperation with the Vienna Disabled Sports Association, were keenly watched by a talented team: Rapid Youth Coach (Academy, u14's) Jürgen Kerber was on hand, as were Matias Costa and Dominik Forman (one time Youth and Academy players) to supervise the goings-on. The team will represent an official branch of SK Rapid, and will not only don the famous Rapid crest on their shirts, but will also be run and trained by official Rapid coaches.The project is a long term vision. There won't only be fixtures in the future, but also sporting competition Austria wide. The team is already confirmed for an international tournament the highlight in the years calendar: The SK Rapid Special Needs Team will take part in the Special Adventure Camping in Liechtenstein (June 2014) alongside colleges from other teams such as Chelsea, Arsenal, TSG Hoffenheim, FC Zürich and host of others names. The event is taking place under the patronage of the Football is More Foundation (FiM) - a scheme which, as previously reported, Rapid Vienna has signed up to. Our General Manager Werner Kuhn initially set up contact with the foundation, whilst President and Vice President Michael Krammer and Christoph Peschek are fully supportive of our clubs involvement.In order to draw this new extended branch of the Rapid family closer into the club, for those driving this new vision the key word is inclusion: the training sessions in the Hanappi Stadium  and the Special Adventure Camp are designed to bring the Rapid youth players and the SK Rapid Special Needs Team closer together: shared training sessions are already planned to allow our young sportsman to share a variety of experiences in all aspects of life.You can find more information about Football is More by following the link: www.footballismore.orgWe'll keep you up to date on the progress of our new SK Rapid Special Needs Team!(gw)
12.06.2014