Blind Football – The Mumbai Chapter

by Avinash Palai January 5, 2018

Know about the team that brought Blind Football to the forefront in Mumbai

A year ago Footballcounter in association with Youth United Foundation (YUF) and KICK organised the first-ever blind football team for Mumbai city. The three parties came together to formulate a team for visually challenged, hosting regular training sessions in the process.

Youth United Foundation, an NGO formed up by a group of enthusiastic students of St. Xavier’s, Mumbai worked hard to promote the sport for visually impaired in association with XRCVC (Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged). Surendra Surwade led the Foundation with his friends from St. Xavier’s college and volunteers from across the city; Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged supports the NGO by providing a set of basic equipment to smoothly carry out their practices.

The game was an unknown entity among the citizens of Mumbai and through the YUF, players with disability from St. Xavier’s, Ruia, S.I.E.S, and Wilson College are now enjoying the opportunity to play the game, as FootballCounter.com worked hard to provide them with a bigger platform, promoting the game to the local football fans through social media promotions.

While KICK has been thoroughly supportive in providing their Astroturf for training sessions and matches, measures from Youth United Foundation have made for an inclusive community which has been sharing a common vision, and now feel united as a team.

This initiative has managed to change the life, one such example is of Rahul Gajjal, a BA student at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. He is a district-level footballer, pianist, bright student academically, a gymnastics, chess, cricket, football player and visually impaired, having lost his eye-site at the age of one. It was his enthusiasm for football is what inspired Surendra Surwade to come up with Youth United Foundation as an organization to promote Blind Football.

The initiative from a group of college-going teenagers, who worked towards uniting the youth towards voicing their support and abilities in the right direction, helped the idea to act and course an attempt to provide the indigent and needful of our society by bringing forward a largely, under-looked community in our daily lives. This year, Somaiya College’s youth has taken an onus of promoting this beautiful sport among the youth in their flagship sports fest, SKREAM, as a part of their inaugural ceremony.

This year the three entities have come together again for another Blind Football Exhibition Match in the course of HinduHruday Samrat Chasak Tournament 2018, presented by Inspire Foundation and IBFF, to be held in the city on January 7th. Shiv Sena Youth Wing leader Aaditya Thackeray, who is also the President of Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA), will be the guests for this one-day event.