Indian Blind Football Federation has conducted second East Zone regional Blind Football Tournament
Desk Correspondent, abptakmaa, Kolkata, 18th Nov 2019 : The Indian Blind Football Federation (IBFF) has conducted the second East Zone regional Blind Football Tournament at Kolkata from 16th November to 17th November 2019 at the Rabindra Bharati University Ground, Kolkata. Teams from Kolkata, Bihar, Odisha, Siliguri and Tura had participated in the Tournament. The tournament was conducted in association with the Football Association for the Blind in Bengal (FABB) who are the local partners.
IBFF is an independent body promoting the sport of football amongst the visually challenged in the country – this is a project promoted by the NGO Society for Rehabilitation of the Visually Challenged based in Kochi, Kerala involved with the rehabilitation of the community since 2002.
Blind Football is a 5-a-side game played in a Futsal ground of size 40 M X 20 M with the long sides blocked with sideboards played in nearly 60 countries around the world, India is ranked 30th in the world.
India finished 5th at the recent Asian Blind Football Ch’ships in early October 2019.IBFF is affiliated to the Paralympic Committee of India & IBSA New Delhi and is recognized as the only body to promote and organize football for the blind in India. IBFF has been developing grass-root level Blind Football players and awareness camps across the country since 2013.
The event will have IBSA recognised national level referees officiating the games and new referees identified and trained during the course of the event. The aim of IBFF is develop the game in new regions and provide a platform for developing differently-abled talents to showcase their footballing skills.
In Blind Football all players except the goalkeeper sighted, assisted by a coach and the goal guide. The players are guided by the sound of the ball which has bells inside. To avoid clashing, any player approaching the ball, except the person in possession of the ball, is supposed to call out “voy” (which means „I am here‟) in frequent intervals so that the person with the ball can tackle them and move away.The IBFF Blind Football Academy is operational at Kochi since September 2017 offering intensive training, fitness, tactical skills for a select group of National with the aim to have India participate the future World Cup and Paralympics. Publicity : Perfect Relation.
