Kateryna Monzul: "The referee should help the game open up." How the National Football Referees School works
Ukraine is participating in the 2026 World Amputee Football Federation (WAFF) World Championship
The Ukraine national team will replace Ireland at the world top in Mexico. Note: The original sentence seems to imply a replacement ranking or position context that might need clarification, but strictly translating without adding interpretations results in the above. However, "Збірна України" is more accurately translated as "the Ukraine national team," and "Мексиці" should be "Мексику" if it means Mexico (country), so a corrected version would be: The Ukraine national team will replace Ireland at the world top in Mexico. But keeping strictly to the original wording given: The Ukraine national team will replace Ireland at the world top in Meksytsi.
The Ukrainian amputee football team has been granted the right to participate in the WAFF World Championship in 2026. The Worldwide Amputee Football Federation (WAFF) officially confirmed today that Ukraine will replace Ireland's national team, which was unable to form a full squad due to player injuries.
The championship will take place from November 13 to 22, 2026 in San Juan de los Lagos, Mexico. Ukraine joins 23 national teams competing for the title of world champion.
Tournament participants:
- Asia: Iraq, Iran, Uzbekistan, Japan
- Africa: Algeria, Angola, Ghana, Egypt, Liberia, Morocco, Nigeria
- Europe: England, Spain, Italy, Germany, Poland, Turkey, Ukraine
- South America: Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay
- North and Central America: Costa Rica, Mexico, USA
Ukraine was selected from the list of European reserve teams. As a reminder, in October 2025 in Baku (Azerbaijan), Ukraine's national team won in Division C of the EAFF Amputee Football League Nations.
The squad for the tournament will be announced separately.
Mastercard and Oschadbank are the exclusive partners of Ukraine's amputee football team for the WAFF World Championship.
*Amputee football is an adapted version of the sport for people with limb amputation or functional impairment. On the field, there are seven players – six outfield and one goalkeeper. Outfield players must have a lower limb amputation or functional impairment, while goalkeepers must have an upper limb amputation. Outfield players move on prosthetic blades without prostheses, while goalkeepers play without blades. A match consists of two halves of 20 minutes each with a 10-minute break and is played on a pitch measuring 60x40 meters under adapted rules designed for player safety. Over 100,000 people in Ukraine live with limb amputations. Amputee football helps them return to an active life, engage in sports, and become part of the community.
*«League of Giants» – is a social project of the Ukrainian Football Association aimed at developing amputee football in Ukraine and helping people with limb amputation or functional impairment return to an active life through sports.
In two years, the project has established amputee football centers in 18 cities across Ukraine and united over 500 players into 21 teams. In 2025, the UAF held the first national championship of amputee football in Ukraine's history.
In 2025, the «League of Giants» was awarded the UEFA FootbALL Award in the category of "National Association," and in 2026 it became a winner of the UEFA Grassroots Awards 2025/26 in the Best Disability Initiative category.
