8 African countries participate in international blind football tourney in Enugu

No fewer than eight African countries are currently participating in the ongoing 2019 International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) Blind Football African Championship.

The championship, which will produce a single qualifier for the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, is being held at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu.

The participating countries included Morocco, the current African Blind Football Champions, Niger, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Libya.

Others are Egypt, Mali and host Nigeria.

Each of the team has five players including the goalkeeper, all blind, and they are assisted to know the direction of play by the “talking ball’’.

The Chairman, World Blind Football, Mr Ulrich Pfisterer, said on Monday in Enugu that blind football had become a global phenomenon aimed at integrating and giving people with visual impairment a sense of belonging.

“Just as other people with other forms of disabilities like the amputees are classified in the round leather game internationally,’’ he said.

He expressed hope that with the gradual keen interest by African nations on blind football, the continent would secure more slots in next Paralympics Games.

Meanwhile, Super Eagles Coach, Gernort Rohr has expressed satisfaction with the African Blind Football Championship.

Rohr, who stated this in an interview with newsmen in Enugu on Monday, praised the organiser, Bina Foundation for staging a championship of such magnitude.

”I am satisfied with the organisation and they are doing a great job and I already find possibility in the visual impaired.

” I had a lot of inspiration from the little I watched at my arrival in Enugu. It was a thing of passion for the players,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the weeklong championship, which started on Nov. 22, would end on Dec. 2. (NAN)