Farsley Celtic Deaf disappointed by 'hurtful' jibes after recording 36-0 win

An established and successful deaf team, the Celts recently romped to an emphatic 36-0 win over the considerably less experienced Hall Road Rangers Deaf.

However, a post celebrating their victory shared on X, formerly Twitter, sparked a barrage of jibes.

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post, player Danny Rea said: “That particular game, our team was from a higher standard compared to them. We've got the experience. The other team were a new team and really at the start of the process and learning.

"They had a really good attitude, they were up for the challenge. It was a good game. We could see there were individuals with skill levels but our whole team were of a higher level.

“We expected to be congratulated, applauded - and the other team as well, for them to not give up and raise the white flag. I know people commented 'were you playing a blind team?' and 'you couldn't hear the full-time whistle'. There was a lot of negative feedback.

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"We're still trying to understand why people make comments like that. We still don't understand why. We were completely lost as to why we had this type of response. It was quite hurtful.”

Assistant manager Matt Dixon hears and as a result, picks up on discriminatory comments made towards players at games. Unfortunately, being on the receiving end of taunts is not a new experience for the side.

Dixon explained: “Every week, it's something. This is a club for people who are lost and isolated in hearing football. They'll join a deaf club and be like 'oh, wow'. For me, it's really hard to see people come in, they're low confidence, then they get confident, and then something's said and they feel stupid because they're in a deaf team. I just think it's really sad.”

Farsley have qualified for the 2024 edition of the Deaf Champions League and are hoping to raise the funds required to compete. As their 36-0 win garnered more and more attention, the club imposed tongue-in-cheek fines on X users who had shared mocking comments.

However, the sharp increase in offensive posts did not correlate to an increase in donations.

Rea said: “Two weeks ago, we beat a hearing team 9-0. We thrashed them, completely controlled the game, such an easy game. No comments, nothing said because it was a hearing team. We feel like we're just being targeted because we're deaf.”

Donations to Farsley’s Champions League fundraiser can be made via GoFundMe.