Premiere in Paris! In July 2026, the City of Lights will host the third edition of the so-called “unified” football World Cup, whose competing teams will be partly composed of players with mental disabilities, organizers announced on Monday, November 17.
This will be the first outside the United States. The previous two editions of this inclusive event were held in Chicago in 2018 and in Detroit in 2022.
“After the unforgettable Olympics and Paralympics in Paris in 2024, Paris will become the inclusive football capital of the world in July 2026,” welcomed Special Olympics France, the French version of the Special Olympics International association founded in 1968 in the United States and aimed at “ending discrimination against people with intellectual disabilities” in particular through sport.
The Paris event will bring together 12 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams at the Charléty stadium, south of the capital, from July 5 to 11.
France will field a men’s team and a women’s team
The men’s tournament will feature a team of 17 players including six substitutes, consisting of nine disabled players and eight non-disabled players, while the women’s tournament will see a team of 11 players (including 4 substitutes) with six disabled players and five non-disabled players, Julien Collette, executive director of the event’s local organizing committee, told AFP.
France will field a men’s team and a women’s team: “players with disabilities are footballers who are users of medico-social institutions that are member associations in Île-de-France; non-disabled players will come from the Paris FC training center,” he explained.
“Welcoming athletes from all over the world, both disabled and non-disabled, to Paris is to affirm that football can and should be a great vector of equality and respect,” commented Pierre Ferracci, president of Paris FC, quoted in the press release.
“The State’s support for the 2026 Special Olympics Integrated Football World Cup illustrates France’s desire to make sport a real engine of inclusion,” said Minister of Sports, Marina Ferrari.
The president of the French Football Federation, Philippe Diallo, also welcomed the event which “illustrates our shared commitment to football open to all, without distinction”.
