U.S. Dwarf Futbol Association Earns its Seat at U.S. Soccer Federation’s Table
Zachary Shattuck (left) and teammates with U.S. Soccer President Cindy Cone (second from left)
Football, or soccer as it is referred to in the United States, is the most popular sport in the world. Known as The World’s Game or The Beautiful Game, it is played on all 7 continents, including Antarctica, with a global fanbase of, according to Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), approximately 5 billion people. That is almost two-thirds of the global population. Every four years, almost the entire world tunes in for the FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Women’s World Cup, both month-long tournaments where each nation battles for world supremacy on the pitch.
Each member nation of FIFA has a soccer federation or association that governs the sport on the international, national, and amateur levels. In the United States, that governing body is the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), which oversees the professional men’s, women’s, and youth national teams; Major League Soccer (MLS) and the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL); as well as the amateurs, such as the various adult and youth soccer associations and organizations.
Also under the US Soccer umbrella are state associations, non-profit organizations, national affiliates and disabled service organizations—the newest of which is the United States Dwarf Futbol Association (USDFA). To learn more about USDFA, what its new membership to US Soccer means to the community and the sport, I sat down with Zachary Shattuck. Zachary is a two-time Paralympic swimmer – having medaled in the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, World Dwarf Games coordinator for the Dwarf Athletic Association of America, and Executive Director of USDFA.
As Zachary explained, “The United States Dwarf Futbol Association was founded in 2021 by Myself, Zachary Roloff, alongside others in the dwarfism community. It was founded as a soccer organization for people with dwarfism with a mission of offering affordable and accessible programming for youth and adult athletes to play the sport, while at the same time working to provide a pipeline for athletes to participate in national and international competitions.” As they were building this organization from the ground up, they were also applying for membership to US Soccer, a process Zachary described to be very intensive. In addition to a plethora of documents needing to be filed and logistics to be worked out, Shattuck, Roloff and other members of the board traveled to different events and conferences, speaking on behalf of dwarf soccer, advocating for membership.
Their hard work paid off and, at this year’s U.S. Soccer’s Annual General Meeting in Atlanta, the United States Dwarf Futbol Association was approved as a Disability Service Organization. Membership means that the United States Dwarf Futbol Association not only has greater access to funding and sponsorship opportunities, as well as opportunities to network and expand as an organization, but also opens the door for participation in future team camps run by other disability soccer organizations.
For Zachary it was both an honor and a privilege to be in attendance, to receive this recognition by the sport. He and the team put in so much work to get to this moment and was proud to see all that work paying off. Not only were he and his team able to be in conversation with US Soccer leadership as well as representatives from US Soccer’s membership, they were able to demonstrate exactly what dwarf athletes are capable of on the pitch. They had gathered together dwarf athletes of all ages and genders at Falcons Stadium in Atlanta to play the game and give a glimpse as to what is possible with continued development of the sport on our level.
Zachary Shattuck (second from right) and teammates with Technical Director & Coach Miguel Sanz (left)
The reaction to this news, both within the little person community and outside of it, was positive. People and organizations extended their congratulations and expressed their excitement about what this means for the future of the sport at every level and for the athletes at every age who want to play. As Zach pointed out, a lot of kids with dwarfism give up the game after a certain period of time because they cannot compete with athletes of average height, nor do they know about opportunities that may exist elsewhere. Speaking for myself—as a person with dwarfism who grew up loving sports but had to stop playing at a young age because the field literally grew too big, and who did not have adaptive or para sports easily accessible to her—I am excited about what this means for present and future athletes. Moreso, I am immensely proud to see that dwarf athletics was getting this recognition by the governing body for soccer in the United States. While some may see this as our community finally being given a seat at the table, I saw it as us earning our seat at the highest table in the sport.
Understandably, there were questions asked: What does all this mean? What are you trying to accomplish? For Zachary, the answer was simple, “We are trying to establish an organization that focuses on the development of LP (little person) soccer players and get to the point where we have a national team for both the men and women and give these athletes the opportunity to compete at the highest level nationally and internationally, to wear the US Soccer crest on their chests and represent their country playing this incredible game that the world loves and comes together for.” To him, as someone who has competed twice as a Paralympian, doing so is the highest honor; it is the pinnacle of what an athlete can do in sports, and can only and always grow the sport.
When asked to look ahead and answer what is next for USDFA and dwarf soccer, Zachary is very optimistic. He explained that, “As an organization, we have set three goals moving forward: To become an extended national team, to start a women’s league, and to continue to create opportunities for youth athletes with dwarfism to play and continue to play in the sport.” In many ways this achievement, this recognition, is simply the next step – and it is also a new beginning.
