About Blind Football

Blind football is a sport played in teams of five by athletes with vision impairements. Of those athletes, four are outfielders and one is a goalie. The rules are similar to the official FIFA rules with a few adjustments. Each team competes to score a goal on their opponent’s side of the field.

Specialised equipment is used in blind football to ensure adaptability. The ball is hollow with a noisemaker inside allowing players with a vision impairement to follow. In this case, the entire stadium must be completely silent until a goal is scored.

All players except for the goalie wear blackout eye masks to ensure fair play and equal vision standards. The goalie must be sighted or partially sighted and does not need to wear a mask.

Teams are allowed to receive assistance from both an offensive guide and their goalie. The goalie may shout instructions to the players, and the offensive guide makes noise near the goal, providing a reference for where to shoot the ball towards.

Blind football matches last two equal periods of 20 minutes with a half-time that must not exceed 10 minutes. The size of the goal and the field is smaller than football. The field is 40m by 20m and surrounded by kickboards. These kickboards prevent the ball from leaving the field of play.

Offside and throw-ins are not present in blind football, showcasing ongoing play of the sport in each fifteen-minute half.

Blind Football History

Initially developed and was popularised in Spain, in the 1920s blind football slowly gained traction in the rest of the world. Brazil began engaging with the sport in the 1960s, and has been a key player in Paralympic Games since its debut.

Blind football was played by different rules in each country until 1996 once the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) was recognised as the sport’s governing body.

Blind football first featured at the Paralympics in Athens 2004, and has featured at every Games since.

Brazil has won gold at every Games except for Paris 2024 where they came third against France (1st) and Argentina (2nd).

Did you know?

There has never been a women’s event in blind football at the Paralympics. Women’s interest in the sport continues to grow with more training camps and tournaments and may one day garner enough participation to be included at the Paralympic level.