Almost half of the 17,500 additional disabled people playing regular sport are taking part in football, as the Football Association’s (FA) £3.2m (US$4.9m, €4.4m) participation initiative begins to bear fruit.

Sport England’s Active People Survey 2015, published yesterday (10 December), revealed that the number of disabled people playing sport at least once a week leapt to 1.58m between October 2014 and September 2015.

Of the new participants, 8,500 have started playing football. According to the FA, the total number of disabled individuals participating in football has reached 108,800.

Growth has been driven by the FA’s Disability Football Development Fund, which is being used with the ambition of getting 30,000 more disabled people playing football and boosting the number of disability football teams within Charter Standard clubs to 500 over three years. The initiative was launched in January 2014.

The FA’s national elite development manager for disability, Jeff Davis, said: “We are delighted to have retained and increased those disabled people playing the game and look forward to 2016, where we hope to continue this success and grow the game.”

Overall, football participation decrease by 66,600 year-on-year, but remained the most popular team sport with a participation rate of 1.82m.