British teams earn Beijing spot

Coach Paul Harrison has guided the England team to a place in Beijing

Scotland and England's cerebral palsy football teams sealed a qualification spot for Great Britain at next year's Paralympics by finishing in the top seven at the World Championships in Brazil.

Scotland, whose team were formed just six months ago, came sixth in the tournament after two wins, a draw and two defeats.

They racked up a 2-1 win against Argentina and a 4-2 victory on penalties against Ireland, drew 0-0 with China before defeats to Russia and Iran.

Meanwhile, England completed their campaign with a 6-1 thrashing of Ireland to claim seventh place.

They came out attacking and an early free kick from Michael Barker gave England the lead in sublime style.

That set the tone for the rest of the first half with Wayne Ward scoring twice, Barker grabbing his second and Richard Fox finding the net for a 5-0 scoreline at half-time.

Andy Taylor added the sixth in the second half and the Irish grabbed a late consolation goal but England had done enough and ran out the clear winners.

This means the Great Britain team will now join the GB Blind team at the Paralympics next year.

Although both Scotland and England technically claimed qualification spots, Paralympic organisers only recognise Great Britain as a competing entity.

So Scotland will not travel and England will represent Britain, although there are discussions about combining the teams.

Chief Executive of Paralympics GB, Phil Lane said: "I'd like to congratulate the team on this achievement. ParalympicsGB is delighted to be able to take two British football teams to the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, which is a great sign for the sport ahead of the home Games in London in 2012."

Two other England disability football sides were in action over the weekend, the women's Deaf Footsol team beat Norway in a play off to finish third in their World Cup which is the highest finish any English women's football team have ever achieved at World level.

The England amputee football side faced Brazil in a World Championship quarter-final.

Despite two goals from captain Dave Tweed, with one from the penalty spot, England were beaten 3-2 after extra-time with Brazil's winner coming just nine seconds before the final whistle.

The England players will have to pick themselves up for a play-off match against a strong Ukraine side to see who will enter the 5th/6th place play-off.