Foundation (1998) Following the introduction of 7-a-side football in the
1984 Summer Paralympic games, Australia lacked a governing body to oversee and funding to develop a Paralympic football team. In 1998 the Cerebral Palsy Australian Sport & Recreation Federation (CPASRF) and the Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) collectively established a 7-aside football team in preparation for the countries home
Sydney 2000 Paralympics. The team managed by Cornelius Van Eldik and coached by both Russell Marriott and David Campbell lost all three games in the group stage of their debut Summer Paralympic campaign. In 2001, the team participated in their first
Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CPISRA) World Games, defeating both Belgium, Scotland and
England to finish 2nd and 3rd in both group phases. The team went on to defeat the United States 1–0 to finish the tournament in 5th. This appointment was in preparation for the
2007 CPISRA World Championships, which was the qualifying event for the
2008 Beijing Paralympic games. The team finished 11th in the CPISRA championship rankings and subsequently failed to qualify for the Paralympic games, after heavy defeats from both
England and
Brazil. Although defeating
Spain 4–2, in the opening game of the 2011 CPISRA World Championships, the Pararoos lost to
Brazil,
Netherlands and
England to finish in 11th place and subsequently did not qualify to the
2012 London Paralympic games. with the commission deciding that funding should be prioritised to sports that have the greatest chance of success. Following this decision, head coach Paul Brown launched an online petition for the reinstation of the government funding, with over 82,000 individuals signing the change.org appeal. However, Matthew Favier the ASC Sport director at the time reiterated the commission's decision stating that the “ASC did not believe the team would qualify for Rio”. In January 2015, the governance of the sport was passed over from the
CPISRA to the newly created
International Federation of Cerebral Palsy Football (IFCPF) [1]. Paul Brown stepped down from his position as head coach in March 2015. With no funding being provided from ASC, the team was able to qualify and travel to
Argentina for the inaugural
2017 IFCPF Championships, through crowd sourced funding. The game took place on the 30 November 2019, at
Cromer Park Sydney, against world number 12,
Canada. The Pararoos won the game 5–0, with almost 1200 fans in attendance, being a record for 7-a-side football outside of the Paralympic Games. The game also broke the record for the highest merchandise spend per fan of any Australian national game over the 2019 calendar year. As part of the FIFA initiative 100% of the revenue made on the day was reinstalled into supporting the team. The game also celebrated the 100th match for Pararoos captain David Barber, who holds the record for the most appearances for the Australian Paralympic team. == Team Image ==