The 2024 Paralympic games will be getting underway in a few weeks in Paris, it’s truly one of the greatest events on the planet with athletes going beyond what is perceived possible.
It’s time to talk about a side of the beautiful game that we don’t usually talk about, blind football.
The Paralympics first introduced blind football into the games at the 2004 Athens Paralympic games, like most football it’s been dominated by Brazil who have won gold at every Paralympic games.The game is governed not by FIFA but the International Blind Sports Federation which has modified the rules of the game to make it work for its players.
So how does the game work? We’ll first the sport is played in two different categories B1 where the player is completely blind, they are the outfield players who also wear eye masks to guarantee there is no light perception for the player, whilst the goalkeeper must be partially sighted which is the B2/B3 category, so you won’t see the goalkeeper wearing an eye mask, although the goalkeeper must stay within a very small restricted area.
The game is played on a solid surface mostly AstroTurf, there are five players on each team and the ball is a size 3 with an audible bell inside the ball, which allows the players to use their hearing to track the location of the ball. Of course, there are no throw in with boards surrounding the pitch, the players must also shout ‘voy’ before going in for a tackle with team permitted to commit five fouls per half before an eight-meter penalty is awarded for each foul thereafter.
A typical match at the Paralympics lasts thirty minutes although this varies depending on the national association and competition. The Paralympic matches are split into two halves of fifteen minutes. Each team can request a one-minute time-out each half and during the last two minutes of both halves, and in case of an extra time, the timekeeper or referee must stop the clock for a free kick, kick-in and corner kick. There are also spotters behind each goal to support the attacking play who can communicate with players to help better organise the attacking play, also the goalkeepers as they have the best vision of any player on the pitch can speak to their defenders and of course the coach on the sideline can give players verbal commands. Supporters however are required to stay silent when the ball is in play.
So those are the rules but who should you be looking out for if you’re going to watch, well we’ve already mentioned Brazil who are dominant in gold, however South American rivals Argentina are the current world champions who were crowned last year (2023) in Birmingham at the world cup.
The group stage draw includes the group of death Group A where Brazil will face European champions and hosts France, Asian champions and world cup runners up China and European runners up Türkiye.
Argentina the world champions are in group B alongside African champions Morocco, Japan and Colombia.
At present, there is only a men’s blind football tournament at the Paralympics although there is a women’s blind football world cup Argentina are world champions, there is also a partially sighted version of the sport, rules are still the same, but Ukraine are the world champions currently beating England in the final for the last three world cups.
The blind football takes place from September 1st until the 7th of September at a special built temporary venue at the Eiffel Tower.
The Paralympic games take’s place in Paris between Wednesday 28th August and Sunday 8th September being broadcast in a record 160 territories. You can watch it on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, RTE in the Republic of Ireland and NBC in the United States of America.
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