Women’s Blind Football Calls For Global Participation

The International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) has launched it’s “Women’s Blind Football Network” to help encourage more visually impaired and partially sighted sports women around the world to participate in blind football competitions.

Ahead of the blind football (also blind soccer) event for women being planned for the summer of 2017, the network hopes to bring together coaches, players, support staff and referees. The aim is to help countries develop new teams through the cross-fertilization of ideas regarding techniques, good practice and experiences.

Ultimately, IBSA aims to popularize blind football a variation of futsal; particularly in developing countries where the game still remains unknown and other nations where the sport is still at the developmental stage.

Football for the Blind and partially sighted started as a playground game for school pupils in ‘special schools’ for the visually impaired. It has become the most popular sport for the visually impaired globally. Participating in blind football (also blind soccer) has the ability to improve: communication skills, orientation and mobility and heighten spatial awareness and echo location. The sport also has psycho-social benefits (self- confidence) and also increases the awareness of the abilities and potential of the visually impaired in society.

Blind soccer is a paralympic sport and can be played by all age groups with different types of vision impairment. It’s an outdoor game played on a 42mx 22m wide field with side kickboards. It’s played by five people (5-aside- football) with four outfield players and a goalie. The outfield players wear eye patches (shades) or blindfolds. Goal keepers can be partially sighted or totally blind. And the ball is audible because it contains ball bearings. Players are able to spot the ball by its rattling sound.

IBSA oversees a number of sports for the blind and partially sighted athletes. This includes school sport competitions, elite sports and the Paralympics. Most importantly, it aspires to foster global participation in all these sports.

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