Posters

If you hear my “Voy” – take care! On the history of football for the blind

Poster Details

First Author: S. Scholtz GERMANY

Co Author(s):    T. Wrzesinski   D. Stirton   U. Pfisterer   F. Krogmann   G. Auffarth        

Abstract Details

Purpose:

Football for the blind is quite a new sport: Brazil and Spain were the most prominent pioneer countries in football for blind and partially sighted people. In these two countries the game was already popular in the playgrounds of schools for the blind in the first half of the 20th century. The first blind football tournament took place in Brazil some fifty years later in 1974. Today football for the blind is a sport discipline played in over 60 countries worldwide. This poster will give a brief overview of the basics of this sport and its history.

Setting:

(1) International Vision Correction Research Center (IVCRC), Dept. of Ophthalmology, University of Heidelberg, Germany (2) Sepp Herberger Foundation, Hennef, Germany (3) IBSA Blind Football Development Project Europe, Bonn, Germany (4) IBSA Football Committee, Bonn,Germany

Methods:

Selective literature search in books and journal articles via PubMed, Google Scholar and Google as well as close cooperation with the Sepp-Herberger-Foundation, Germany, and the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA), Germany.

Results:

Having its origin in Brazil, blind football was an established sport already in South America, England, Spain and other countries in the 1960s. IBSA took the sport on board in 1995, the first official international championships took place in Paraguay and Spain in 1997. The first World Championships were held in Brazil in 1998. Blind football gained popularity very quickly after these Events, the sport made its Paralympic debut in 2004. The ball contains a sound system that enable the blind football player to hear/localize the ball. A pivotal function is assigned to the Spanish word “Voy” which means “I’m coming”. Any player who approaches a player with the ball under control has to shout this word audibly.

Conclusions:

Football for the blind is an extraordinary and spectacular sport discipline with ongoing increasing interest. Leagues have existed in countries like Spain for more than 20 years - in Brazil thousands of spectators watch matches - and these special football games are becoming more and more established also in other countries too, e.g. in Germany.

Financial Disclosure:

NONE