Cerebral palsy footballer kicked out of Paralympics - he's not disabled enough

The 28-year-old, who won bronze in the T38 800 metres in Athens, was deemed ineligible to participate in the Paralympics tournament in Beijing following a classification review by CP-ISRA.

The CP-ISRA ruling dictated that Malone's current condition did not meet their
minimal disability criteria.

There is no cure for cerebral palsy, but the condition can be managed.

Home Malone: Derek Malone's Paralympics are over after he was excluded

Malone, from Limerick, entered the tournament as a CP8 - for players with the lowest level of cerebral palsy - and was assessed during Ireland's 4-2 loss to Iran on Monday.

The Paralympic Council of Ireland were then informed of the decision.

The PCI believe Malone, who is employed as one of their strength and conditioning coaches, has been disqualified for optimising his performance through training.

'I find it ridiculous,' said Malone, who opted to play football in Beijing after the T38 800m was removed from the athletics programme.

'High performance sport is about pushing the limits. This has left a bitter taste in my mouth because of the principles that I believe in: hard work, discipline and the chance to show what you can do.'

Malone has been involved in seven-a-side football and athletics throughout his career as an international athlete.

In 2002 he was frozen out of a football tournament, with officials suggesting his condition was caused by developmental co-ordination disorder and not cerebral palsy.

However, an appeal was successful in April 2003 and it was accepted without question that Malone had cerebral palsy and he went on to place third in Greece.

PCI secretary general Liam Harbison stressed his belief that the ruling is particular to seven-a-side football and does not have wider ramifications for the Games.

'I don't think this brings into question the classification system in Paralympic sports, it's particular to this one sport,' said Harbison.

'The situation with Derek's case has been long and complex and his review at these Games was on the basis to a protest to a decision made in May.

'We took the risk, in some respects, to select Derek, believing, backed up by medical evidence, that Derek is eligible to play and should be eligible to play.

'Unfortunately the classification team decided otherwise.'

Are the Russian footballers at the Paralympic Games disabled? Or are they so able they could play the game as professionals?

That is the question being posed after four countries protested formally to the  chairman of the Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association, the
body that decides whether CP sufferers are sufficiently disabled by their brain  condition.

The protests came after Russia beat Holland 12-1 and China 6-0.

‘The Russia team are almost so good that they can make money,’ said Dutch coach Jan-Hein Evers.

Brazil, Ukraine, Holland and Ireland have complained to chairman Alan Dickson that the classification of a player’s degree of disability is ‘not open and transparent’, that it is done by a Canadian woman Terrie Moore who does not understand football and some players are being ruled out after years in the game.