JAMAICA has been invited to participate in the first-ever Special Olympics Unified Football Cup in Malaysia between October 29 to November 10 later this year.

Modelled after the FIFA World Cup, the largest single-event sporting competition in the world, the Unified Football tournament looks to bring together teams from over 20 countries, representing each of the Special Olympics’ seven regions.

Lorna Bell, the executive director of Special Olympics Jamaica (SOJ), expressed unrestrained joy at getting the opportunity — Jamaica being the only Caribbean nation invited — to compete in the tournament.

“I am excited and today we must be a proud nation, we are among the 26 countries invited to take part in this inaugural Unified Football World Cup, the only country from the Caribbean. Our team of volunteers in Jamaica is extraordinary, our law enforcement officers and our sponsors believe in the movement,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

The inclusive Unified Sports programme combines athletes with intellectual disabilities and individuals without these disabilities as teammates on sports teams for training and competition.

Aside from Jamaica and hosts Malaysia, other countries expected to participate are Ecuador, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Honduras, United States, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, China, Republic of Korea, France, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Slovakia.

“We are very proud that Malaysia has been given the honour to host this historic event and we will do everything possible to showcase the first Unified Football Cup. I am pleased that we will also have the support of FIFA,” said Khairy Jamaluddin of Malaysia’s Ministry of Youth and Sports on the Special Olympics International official website recently.

Last year, Jamaica attracted global recognition due to historic achievements at the Special Olympics World Winter Games in the Republic of Korea.

The small island won silver medals in two ice figure skating categories to go with their second-place finish in floor hockey at the eight-day Championship.

With the 2015 Los Angeles Summer Games on the horizon, SOJ will also be looking to use the tournament in Malaysia as added preparation for its Unified football teams.

“In Jamaica we serve approximately 4,230 male and female athletes and the majority of them are involved in football. SOJ has been playing football from the movement was formed here in Jamaica. We had a vision here and so we made football a stand-alone competition from six years ago.

“The BNS (Scotiabank) Business House football team came on board from the inception and has helped us to move the football. They are our unified partners,” Bell added.

The Special Olympic International movement encourages and empowers people with intellectual disabilities, promoting acceptance for all, and fostering communities of understanding and respect across the world.

The disabilities can either be acquired or genetic and can include cases of Down’s Syndrome, autism, traumatic brain injury and cerebral palsy.