A blind football match between two teams in Germany

Football 5-a-side,^[1] more commonly known as Blind Football or Blind Soccer, is a variation of association football designed for players who are blind or visually impaired. It is currently a Paralympic sport, and the International Blind Sports Association (IBSA) also organizes a World Blind Football Championships.^[2]

Overview

According to IBSA, "football for the blind and partially sighted started out as a playground game for school children in special schools for the visually impaired."

Football 5-a-side, also known as blind football and blind futsal, is an adaptation of football for athletes with visual impairments including blindness. The sport, governed by the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA), is played with modified FIFA rules. The field of play is smaller, and is surrounded by boards. Teams are reduced to five players, including the goalkeeper, per team. Teams may also use one guide, who is positioned off the field of play, to assist in directing players. The ball is equipped with a noise-making device to allow players to locate it by sound. Matches consist of two 20-minute halves, with a ten-minute break at half-time.

Football 5-a-side players are assigned to one of three sport classes based on their level of visual impairment:

• B1 – Totally or almost totally blind; from no light perception up to light perception but inability to recognise the shape of a hand.
• B2 – Partially sighted; able to recognise the shape of a hand up to a visual acuity of 2/60 or a visual field of less than 5 degrees.
• B3 – Partially sighted; visual acuity from 2/60 to 6/60 or visual field from 5 to 20 degrees

Teams are permitted to use sighted athletes as goalkeepers and guides; sighted goalkeepers cannot have been registered with FIFA for at least five years.

Two types of competition exist. For Class B1 games, only athletes with sport class B1 are permitted as players, with the exception of the goalkeepers and the guides, who may be class B2, B3, or sighted. For Class B2/B3 games, teams can field players in sport classes B2 and B3; at least two B2 players must be on the field at all times.

5-a-side football in Europe was developed in Spain. The first Spanish national championships took place in Spain in 1986. In South America, there are records of a Brazilian Tournament organized in 1980. European and American Championships took place in 1997, followed by the first World Championships in 1998. The sport was added to the Summer Paralympic Games in 2004.

As of 2022, there were 46 countries in the men's ranking.^[3]

Rules

Generally speaking, the rules of blind football are very similar to the rules of futsal. There are, however, some important exceptions:

• All players, except for the goalkeeper, are blindfolded.
• The ball has been modified to make a jingling or rattling sound.
• Players are required to say "voy", "go", or something similar when going for the ball; this alerts the other players about their position.
• A guide, positioned outside the field of play, provides instructions to the players.

Notable players

• Jefinho
• Ricardinho

Results

Men's

B1

Main article: World Blind Football Championships

Years	Venues	Winners	Score	Runners-up	Third place	Score	Fourth place	Number of teams
1998 Details	Campinas	Brazil	1–0	Argentina	Spain	2–0	Colombia	6
2000 Details	Jerez	Brazil	3–0	Argentina	Spain	4–0	Greece	8
2002 Details	Rio de Janeiro	Argentina	4–2	Spain	Brazil	2–0	Colombia	9
2006 Details	Buenos Aires	Argentina	1–0	Brazil	Paraguay	2–1	Spain	8
2010 Details	Hereford	Brazil	2–0	Spain	China	1–0	England	10
2014 Details	Tokyo	Brazil	1–0	Argentina	Spain	0–0 (2–0 in penalties)	China	12
2018 Details	Madrid	Brazil	2–0	Argentina	China	2–1	Russia	16

Source: IBSA Football – Results Archived 20 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine

B2/B3 (Partially Sighted)

Year	Venue		Winners	Score	Runners-up		Third place	Score	Fourth place		Number of teams
1998 Details	Campinas		Belarus	3–2	Spain		Italy	9–2	Argentina		6
2002 Details	Varese		Belarus	14–2	Russia		Spain	3–2	Brazil		12
2013 Details	Miyagi		Russia	1–0 (AET)	Ukraine		England	14–0	Japan		4
2017 Details	Cagliari		Ukraine	3–0	England		Russia	2–2 (2–1 in penalties)	Spain		8

Source: IBSA Football – Results Archived 20 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine

Women's

Year	Venue		Winners	Score	Runners-up		Third place	Score	Fourth place		Number of teams
2017 Details	Vienna		Japan	1–0	IBSA select[lower-alpha 1]		England/ Greece select	0–0 (1–0 in penalties)	Russia/ Canada select		4

Source: IBSA Football – Results Archived 20 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine

1. ↑ Composed of players from Belgium, France, Germany and Austria.

Men's B1

Division A

Year	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
1997	ESP	GRE	GBR	ITA	POR
1999	ESP	GBR	GRE	POR	FRA
2001	Unknown
2003	ESP	ENG	FRA	GRE	ITA
2005	ESP	FRA	ENG	GRE	ITA	POR	RUS
2007	ESP	GBR	FRA	GRE	ITA	TUR	GER
2009	FRA	ENG	ESP	GRE	GER	TUR	RUS	ITA	BLR
2011	FRA	ESP	ENG	TUR	RUS	GRE	ITA	GER
2013	ESP	FRA	TUR	GER	RUS	ITA	GRE	ENG
2015	TUR	RUS	ESP	ENG	FRA	GER	ITA	BEL	POL	GRE
2017	RUS	ESP	ENG	FRA	TUR	GER	ITA	BEL	ROU	GEO
2019	ESP	FRA	ENG	TUR	RUS	ITA	GER	BEL	ROU	GRE
2022	FRA	TUR	ENG	GER	ITA	GRE	POL	ROU	ESP	CZE

Division B

1. 2017:https://blindfootball.sport/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2017-IBSA-Blind-Football-Division-2-European-Championships.pdf
2. 2019:https://blindfootball.sport/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/IBSA-Blind-Football-European-Championships-Division-2-Bucharest-March-2019.pdf
3. 2021:https://blindfootball.sport/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2021-IBSA-Blind-Football-European-Championships-Division-2-results-and-final-standings.pdf

Year	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
2017	ROU	GEO	GRE	CZE	ALB	IRL	MDA
2019	ROU	GRE	GEO	BLR
2021	ROU	GRE	POL	ALB

Women's B1

2022: https://blindfootball.sport/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2022-IBSA-Women%C2%B4s-Euros-Final-Standings.pdf

Year	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
2022	GER	ENG

See also

• Football 5-a-side at the Summer Paralympics
• World Blind Football Championships
• Paralympic Games
• Paralympic soccer
• Football 5-a-side at the Asian Para Games
• IBSA Blind Football Asian Championships
• Blind football in Cameroon
• Blind football in Australia
• Blind football at the 2023 ASEAN Para Games
• Blind football at the 2024 Summer Paralympics

References

External links

• International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA)
• https://blindfootball.sport/results-and-rankings/world-rankings/