Thousands of fans don’t come to see them playing, but they will always fight until the very end. The team of absolutely blind indoor soccer players has been established in Viciebsk in 2008.
A train of seven men exit a locker room. They keep their hands on neignbours’ shoulders, they have sleeping masks on their faces.
They quickly pass the marble floor of the corridor and go up the stairs to reach the soccer hall. The security woman looks at them and says: “They’re our blind footballers.”
There are nine persons in the sports hall filled with autumn sunlight. Five of them never see the sunlight. The team manager Alieh Kirylau divides the athletes into couples and explains the rules of indoor soccer for absolutely blind people.
A match is divided into two 25-minute halves. The field is a standard futsal field, however with high soft fences along it. There are for blind players and seeing goalkeeper in each team.
A peculiarity of the uniform is the mask which protects the faces from the fingers of other players.
Another difference is the ringing ball with sounding elements inside. It is also makes the ball a bit heavier than a usual one.
The goalkeepers help the fullbacks, but they cannot leave the penalty area. Moreover, a coach and a “guide” also participate in the game.
The coach helps to find the centre of the soccer field and the guide stays behind the goal and guides the forwards.
The players must also mark their locations clearly pronouncing “vaya” (“I go” in Spanish) in order not to turn a match into hide-and-seek game.
The first football match among blind was held in Spain in 1986. After 18 years, it was introduced as a Paralympic sport in Athens. At the end of 2000s, “blind football” arrived in Belarus.
Read more on 34mag (in Belarusian)
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