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The Most Inclusive Match was held as Toulouse took on Lorient in Ligue 1.
Luis Soto
When Toulouse FC hosted FC Lorient on March 21st in front of 23,014 spectators, the fixture was Matchday 27 of Ligue 1. It was also the moment a Spanish-born initiative became something bigger as soccer drove accessibility efforts on a global scale, seeking to bring inclusivity to the game on an even bigger scale than before.
The Most Inclusive Match, created by World Football Summit and non-governmental organization Integrated Dreams, had spent three years proving its model worked at club level in Spain. France was the first test of whether it could travel, and whether a professional league, rather than a single club, could drive it. The answer to both, at Stadium de Toulouse, was yes.
League-level support propelling potential to the next level
Previous editions of The Most Inclusive Match were led by individual clubs, Real Betis being the first in 2023 and later followed by Atlético Madrid and Real Sociedad in Spain in the following years. This year, the involvement of the French Ligue de Football Professionnel changed the dynamic. Where a club making accessibility commitments affects one arena, a league making them affects an entire competition.
“When a league drives the initiative, the impact is structural and systemic rather than exceptional,” said Marian Otamendi, CEO and co-founder of World Football Summit. “It sets a standard across all clubs, not just one.”
The LFP had already made accessibility a formal priority before The Most Inclusive Match arrived. Clubs in Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 are subject to annual accessibility audits. Disability liaison officers are now a mandatory appointment under the Club Licensing system, introduced in the 2024-25 season. The accessibility of online ticketing platforms is assessed within the same framework. The LFP publishes adapted competition guides for visually impaired fans in four formats (Braille, large print, audio, and web) for the twelfth consecutive year.
The LFP's most recent fan satisfaction survey, conducted between April and June 2025 and drawing 716 responses from spectators with disabilities and their companions, found that seat access and stadium entry scored 81% and 77% satisfaction respectively. Reception and hospitality scored lower and were flagged for improvement.
“Ligue 1 was the natural choice because they were not starting from scratch,” said José Soares, CEO of Integrated Dreams. “The Most Inclusive Match found in the LFP a partner whose existing commitment matched its own ambition.”
It also made sense for Ligue 1 as an organization. “Ligue 1 is working on an ambitious CSR action plan with the clubs,” shared Jérôme Belaygue, Communications and CSR Director of Ligue 1. “Together, we are developing a shared strategy to highlight our environmental and social commitments. The ‘most inclusive match’ is an opportunity to demonstrate our expertise at the national level for the benefit of people with disabilities, and to raise greater awareness of this know‑how internationally.”
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Different elements across the matchday experience were adapted to meet accessibility needs.
oceanica
The scale of accessibility challenges in soccer
The broader context is stark. According to the World Health Organization, 1.3 billion people worldwide live with some form of disability. Data from the Centre for Access to Football in Europe and AccessibAll indicates that 50% of people with a disability have never attended a live sports event. Research from the Disability Policy Centre found that 23% of disabled people surveyed in the UK were unable to attend sports events due to a lack of accessible transport alone.
The commercial argument runs alongside the moral one. According to Purple, a UK consultancy focused on disability inclusion in business, three in four people with disabilities have walked away from a business because of poor accessibility or customer service. The Return on Disability Group estimated in 2024 that the global disability market, including family members and close contacts, at $18.33 trillion. Soccer has barely touched that market.
How Toulouse hosted the Most Inclusive Match
At Stadium de Toulouse, the day featured accessible shuttle services, audio description for visually impaired supporters, GiveVision smart glasses that allow wearers to zoom onto the pitch or watch the match as they would on a screen, and a dedicated space for neurodivergent fans. A VIP lounge was given over entirely to five young adults with autism, alongside their parents and educators.
Both squads wore shirts with player names removed from the back, replaced by seven pictograms representing different categories of disability. Paris 2024 Paralympic gold medallist Lucas Mazur and French actress Mayane Sarah El Baze gave the ceremonial kick-off.
Toulouse FC's CSR head Manon Lombard said that few of the measures required significant internal restructuring, since accessibility had already been built into the club's operating model. The GiveVision glasses and the sensory space were new. Whether they become permanent fixtures depends on feedback from the fans who used them.
“We talked a lot about ‘heritage,’” said Lombard. “Having a strong CSR policy is part of our DNA. Toulouse FC has always had a strong activity out of the pitch, to connect with territory in order to be an active member of the local community. Because soccer is a wonderful tool to gather people around positive-impact-project. No using it would be a failure to fulfil our civic duties.”
And Toulouse is keen to ensure that this game is just the start, rather than a one-off instance. “The main objective is to ensure the long-term sustainability of new initiatives,” Lombard explained. “But before we implement solutions on a permanent basis, we need feedback from users to determine whether they address a real need.”
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Local Toulouse fans were able to benefit as part of their long-term CSR strategy,
Luis Soto
Ligue 1 partners involved as part of CSR efforts
McDonald’s France, the official namer of Ligue 1, participated in a job fair for candidates with disabilities held at the stadium in the days before the match. Through its “Équipier du match” programme, a crew member with a disability delivered the ball to the centre circle for the ceremonial kick-off. Essilor, the competition's main partner, designed a bespoke Man of the Match trophy based on the campaign's visual identity.
Toulouse FC’s foundation president Cindy Johnson-Tufi was straightforward about the commercial framing. Accessibility is not a direct revenue driver, you do not fill a stadium by adding a sensory room, but it strengthens long-term relationships with partners and community regardless of results on the pitch.
The Ambition Beyond France
For WFS and Integrated Dreams, the vision is for every professional football league in the world to host at least one inclusive matchday per season. France is the first league to take that on. It will not be the last, if the model holds.
“Each edition teaches us something new,” said Otamendi. “The Most Inclusive Match is a living project, and internationalisation is not its destination. It is the next step in a much longer journey.”
Whether that journey reaches the Premier League, the Bundesliga, or Serie A next depends on finding league-level partners willing to make the same structural commitment the LFP made in France. The Toulouse edition was built to make that case.
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