The money has been pooled in from sanctions or monetary fines (arriving late for training sessions, carrying mobile phones during meals, wearing the wrong attire etc.) gathered for breach of discipline.

It will allow the IBFF to buy footballs and other playing material.

‘It’s important to give it back to the community’ was the theme sported by India coach Stephen Constantine.

“The footballs which the blind footballers use cost $50 each. So we are helping them buy some balls. We collectively agreed among everybody within the National Team — the players, and the staff that any money collected from fines or any misdemeanors will be donated for a good cause. It’s just a very small gesture, but it shows that we can,” said Constantine.

The players ‘support the noble cause wholeheartedly’ was the opinion of India goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.

“We love this concept of helping others with the money. The sanctions are there to impart discipline among us. Although nobody wants to be fined, this initiative makes us believe in the larger aspects of life. If we are able to contribute for a cause or help, why not. It helps us to be better individuals,” said Sandhu.

Sunil J Mathew (Sporting Director, IBFF) thanked the Blue Tigers for this initiative: “This is to acknowledge and thank you for the donation towards helping cover the stay and kit expenses at the National Blind Football Academy at Kochi. We would like to especially thank the entire AIFF coaching staff and the National Team for their support. We wish the entire team the very best for the Asian Cup.”

AIFF MEDIA

Also Read: AFC ASIAN CUP: It is an honor to play for India: Chettri

Also Read: AFC ASIAN CUP: India still have work to do: Constantine

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Indian Blind Sports Association (IBSA) is the largest national level sports body devoted to the promotion of sports among the visually challenged in the country. In 2004, the association started promoting Football as a sport for the visually challenged, organizing demonstrations of 5-a-side football and distributing special footballs to the participating institutions in the National Coaching. The Association also started National Football tournaments over the years for the players.

IBFF and the works

However, despite all this, Blind Football still missed an identity of their own, until the year 2013 when Society for Rehabilitation of the Visually Challenged (SRVC) joined together with Indian Blind Football Federation (IBFF) to bring together the best players from all over the country to represent the Indian National Blind Football Team. The Federation arranged training facilities and tours for the national teams to train practice and improve their skills.

In 2016, after the successful All India Tournament, the Federation undertook an awareness road-show and blind football camp to Kolkata and across North East in search of new talents and giving more visually challenged players a chance to showcase themselves. Cities like Tura, Meghalaya, Guwahati, Shillong & Imphal were the places for the show. The tour involved playing demonstration games with the 2016 All Indian Tournament winner – Kerala Blind Football Team playing with the local sides, distribution of Blind Footballs and training the trainers.

International Performance

In the year 2013, India had its first representation in an International Blind Football Tournament in Malaysia facing the likes of Iran, Russia, and Hong Kong. In the seven country tournament, the Indian team finished well at the fourth spot bowing out in the semi-finals. In the subsequent year, the team toured Malaysia and Hong Kong, while they lost the friendly against Malaysia, the performances definitely boosted the team for the rest of the Hong Kong tour. Against World No 4 China – the team did what they could to hold off a masterly performance by the World Championships Semi-finalists but suffered a heavy defeat. Next up was a game against Hong Kong, the local team which Team India won 1-0 with a field goal scored by M S Ranjith beating the home team India eventually finished fourth in the tournament.

To prepare the team for the 2015 Rio Paralympics and Asian Championship Tokyo, The federation along with SRVC organized preparatory camps roping in International Blind Sports Instructor and Referee Mr Loo W.K from Malaysia. Players from Delhi, Dehradun, Kolkata and Kerala were brought together for the preparatory camp. Sunil Mathew, Head Coach, M. C. Roy, Manager, Ravi Cosul (Assistant Coach) and David Absalom (Chief-de-Mission) accompanied the players as the officials. Though the tournament turned out win-less for the team losing against the likes of tournament heavyweights Iran, Korea and Japan, the experience and exposure playing some of the best in the world gave the players confidence and determination to succeed in the future.

Domestic tournament

In early 2016, All India Invitational Blind Football Tournament was held with Society for Rehabilitation of the Visually Challenged (SRVC) of Kerala emerging victorious in the final defeating the young team from NIVH Dehradun in a sudden death penalty shootout. The event, inaugurated by Bollywood actress Shriya Saran, who was also the Brand Ambassador of the sport, brought in around 80 participants and instructors from around the country, including teams from Delhi, Uttarakhand, Dehradun, Kolkata, Mumbai, Northeast, Bangalore and Kerala.

The tournament also brought to the fore some exciting talents from all across the country including some young players. Sukhvinder of NIVH Dehradun was adjudged the Best Player of the Tournament for his consistent overall performance through the event while Abhimanyu Naskar won the Golden Boot for his five field goals for CAB Kolkata in the earlier games.

In this year’s tournament, it was vice versa story with the NIVH Dehradun beating SRVC Kerala in the finals to lift the trophy. Sukvinder was once again the star winning the player of tournament award for the second time in a row while Hilter from Shillong and Pankaj Rana shared the honours of the Golden Boot award with 4 goals each.

Blind Football Academy

The First Blind Football Academy of India was inaugurated by the IBSA World Blind Football Chairman & German National team coach Mr Ulrich Pfister on 15th Sept. 2017. The first Batch had 10 members with facilities like Vocational skills training sessions in computers, reflexology, Telesales opportunities offered to the candidates along with Yoga, fitness training & good nutrition. The Academy aimed to develop a stronger national team for the future.

The post Blind Football – What Has Happened So Far? appeared first on Football Counter.

Football for the blind and partially sighted started out as a playground game for school children in special schools for the visually impaired. It has now become one of the most popular sports for people with a visual impairment worldwide.

The game was taken up in several countries, each playing according to their local rules (different balls and pitches were used, rules varied from country to country, etc.). Many countries, such as Spain and Brazil, set up national championships, and soon countries began to organise the first friendly international matches.

Blind football – or futsal, as it is also known – joined IBSA in 1996 and the 1^st IBSA European Championships were held in Barcelona, Spain, whereas the first American Championships took place in Asunción in Paraguay, in 1997.

Since then, the official IBSA regional and world championships have been held regularly and international friendly tournaments such as the IBSA Cup have become a regular feature on the blind futsal calendar. Brazil is the current IBSA Blind Football World Champions, having won in Tokyo in 2014. Brazil has won four IBSA world titles and Argentina two.

India’s foray in to the game

Just like the many other sports, India came late on board. In 2013, Society for Rehabilitation of the Visually Challenged (SRVC) helped put together the first Blind Football Team with the Indian Blind Sports Association (IBSA) New Delhi. After setting a training camp in New Delhi, the final team flew out to Bangkok from Chennai for their first ever International tournament.

This was a 7 nation International B1 tournament organised at Bangkok between 19th and 22nd Aug 2013. India happened to be the only team which fielded partially sighted goalkeepers while all the other teams had come with sighted keepers (an option available for teams). The Indian team put up a remarkable performance as they finished fourth in the tournament which consisted of teams like Iran, Vietnam, Russia, Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong.

Over the years SRVC and Indian Blind Football Federation (IBFF) have worked together in organising national awareness and demo camp across the country. They also worked hard to organise training camps for the players across the country and result has been seen in India’s improved performance internationally. India were ranked 28^th in the world on January 2015 which went up to 25^th a year later and we’re now ranked 23^rd in this year’s World Ranking.

IBFF now plans to start a full-time Blind Football Academy to train and develop the best players to create a National Team of World Class standard.

On 20th December 2017, Mr Sunil J Mathew, Sporting Director of IBFF, has been included in the IBSA Blind Football Committee for four years.

The post Know about the Blind Football Team of India appeared first on Football Counter.

Coach Ganesh Chandani admitted that coaching Mumbai in Kerala gave him a chance to learn about Blind Football which also helped him to come up with an idea to promote this unique and special game.

“I went to Kerala along with Mumbai’s team as a coach for a Blind football tournament. The actual coach of Mumbai was unavailable which gave me a huge opportunity to coach the Mumbai’s team which indeed turned out to be mesmerizing.

There were teams from Uttarakhand, Kolkata, Delhi, and Dehradun which made the tournament more competitive and interesting,” Ganesh overwhelmingly expressed his feelings on coaching Mumbai’s blind football team.

Ganesh had met Lu, an international coach who was present in Kerala for blind football. Both of them decided to start promoting blind football in Mumbai.

“Later on, I met an international coach named Lu Sir who was quite experienced and was aware about the inside out of Blind football.

He made me aware of Blind football as to how it is played and how the rules are quite different from the sighted football. Before leaving for Mumbai, Lu admitted that blind football in Mumbai is almost unknown to everyone, and that’s where we came upon an idea to promote blind football in Mumbai,” Ganesh said.

Ganesh then explained the rules of blind football and spoke about training sessions. According to Ganesh, stamina and enthusiasm was the key in segregating and selecting these players.

“Blind football is totally different from sighted football. It is played 5-a side with a sighted or a B2-B3 goalkeeper in the post.

For segregating the players, I considered their stamina, enthusiasm and passion about football. Like, stamina is a must for the attackers as they have to run up and down, as for defense, the players need to stay in their position and play. There is bit worry about injuries as sometimes the players collides with each other hence wearing shin guards is compulsory,” Ganesh explained.

Coach Nazeef Chembakassery also explained the quite complicating rules of blind football.

“The ball used in blind football is heavier and has hearings inside it which helps the players to locate the ball. Plus if a player fouls for three or five times, then the oppositions are awarded with a penalty from either 5 metres or 8 metres. There are only goal kick and corners, and no outside or offside.

Also there are two coaches in the field, one at half-line and one at the back. The coaches help the players to move by directing them and they are very important in blind football. The most important part of blind football is all the players has to communicate with each other by saying “woy”,” Nazeef concluded after explaining the bits of blind football.

The post In conversation with blind football coaches Ganesh and Nazeef appeared first on Football Counter.

Each of the three entities will work in their roles, in their capabilities, to solidify the condition of blind football in the city. A restructure of the current blueprint is a necessary change required to implement improved projects for development and enhancement in the conditions for the blind community.

Youth United foundation, an NGO formed up of a group of enthusiastic students of St. Xavier’s, Mumbai has worked hard to promote the sport for visually impaired in association with XRCVC (Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged). While FootballCounter has been working hard to provide them with a bigger platform.

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.

Here are the rules and regulations for Blind football:

5-a-side as per Paralympics association football

Football 5-a-side players are assigned to one of three sports classes based on their level of visual impairment:

• B1– Totally or almost totally blind; from no light perception up to light perception but their inability to recognise the shape of a hand.
• B2– Partially sighted; able to recognise the shape of a hand up to a visual acuity of 2/60 or a visual field of less than 5 degrees.
• B3– Partially sighted; visual acuity from 2/60 to 6/60 or visual field from 5 to 20 degrees

Teams are permitted to use sighted athletes as goalkeepers and guides; sighted goalkeepers cannot have been registered with FIFA for at least five years.

Two types of competition exist. For Class B1 games, only athletes with sports class B1 are permitted as players, with the exception of the goalkeepers and the guides, who may be class B2, B3, or sighted. For Class B2/B3 games, teams can field players in sports classes B2 and B3; at least two B2 players must be on the field at all times.

7-a-side as per Paralympics association football:

7-a-side football is an adaptation of association football for athletes with cerebral palsy and other neurological disorders, including stroke and traumatic brain injury. The sport is governed by the Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CP-ISRA). The sport is played with modified FIFA rules. Among the modifications is a reduced field of play, a reduction in the number of players, elimination of the offside rule, and permission for one-handed throw-ins. Matches consist of two thirty-minute halves, with a fifteen-minute half-time break.

Players competing in 7-a-side football are given a sports class based on their level of disability. Eligible classes are:

• C5: Athletes with difficulties when walking and running, but not in standing or when kicking the ball.
• C6: Athletes with control and co-ordination problems of their upper limbs, especially when running.
• C7: Athletes with hemiplegia.
• C8: Minimally disabled athletes; they must meet eligibility criteria and have an obvious impairment that has an impact on the sport of football.

Teams must field at least one class C5 or C6 player at all times. No more than one player of class C8 are permitted to play at the same time.

With training sessions happening for the past 30 days with all three parties involved, the team has been taking steps in the right direction and requires the support from the football playing community and followers of Footballcounter to lend their hand for the good.

With this huge initiative, the visually impaired ones will not only get a huge platform but it will also motivate the current crop of youths to support and bring this unique sport to where it genuinely belongs.

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