The difficulties of inclusion : A qualitative study of how football associations describe inclusion of children and adolescents with disabilities

The aim of this study was to understand how three selected football associations in three counties in Sweden work to include children and adolescents with disability in the age of 7-20 in their organization. For this study we have used a qualitative method. The data have been collected through using semi-structured interviews with coaches and representatives from the board. When analyzing the data, we used Charles Tilly's theory Durable Inequality and research within the area of inclusion within sports, the significance of activities and the inequality within sports. The conclusions of the study showed that there was a stated lack of knowledge in the associations when it comes to their work with young people with disabilities and also in their work with the policies. Though there was a mutual feeling of insecurity we noticed that in their work with coaching young people they adapted the training session in order for everyone in the team being able to participate. We also saw that the inclusion of the children and adolescents with disabilities varied between the three football associations, how they choose to model their activities. Two of the associations had separated teams and we analyzed how those teams were different in the aims for the teams and in other ways