$175,000.
Until last week, that’s how much funding the Pararoos, our Australian Paralympic Football team, received.
They used that money to successfully launch a team made up of players with cerebral palsy or acquired brain injuries. With $175,000 the team could participate in a few national camps per year, as well as an international camp.
They’re currently ranked 12th in the world. Recently, they’ve managed a silver medal in the UAE (the gold went to Iran, who are ranked third in the world), a silver medal at the Fespic Asian games in Malaysia and a silver medal at the ARAFURA games in Darwin.
And yet it’s been decided that the Pararoos still haven’t been performing well enough. So their funding has been cut completely by the Australian Sports Commission.
They now have exactly $0.00 to keep the team going. Zero.
To explain further – since being founded in 1998, the Pararoos qualified for the 2000 Sydney Olympics and came in 8th place. Since then, they haven’t qualified for any Olympic Games – although they are currently ranked 12th in the world, which really isn’t terrible when you compare them to the Socceroos, who are currently ranked 62nd.