England’s blind footballers prepare for Paralympics
With London’s Paralympics just two years away, Channel 4 News’s Katie Razzall writes about her visit to see the English blind football team as they compete at the World Blind Football Championships.
In Hereford it is World Cup time. 10 teams competing in a game of skill and pace. It is five-a-side football, but with a real twist – only the goalkeepers can see.
The other players are blind – but as some can see light and shade, they all wear masks.
This afternoon the England coach, a former professional footballer, and some of his squad were checking out their group rivals Spain and Columbia ahead of tonight’s match.
Everyone was keen to spread the word that there is still time to get involved ahead of the Paralympics in 2012.
Blind football is about sound and communication – bearings give the ball that rattle – and the players are constantly talking and being talked at so they can visualise who is where on the pitch.
And in a real deviation from football as we know it – fans must stay quiet – reacting only after attempts on goal.
England’s opening match this weekend saw them lose 1-0 to Spain – the team put that down to nerves.
Nerve-wracking too was the half-time challenge – sighted fans asked to have a go at playing the game.
Back in the dressing room, obstacles may start to get in the way, but the team talk is still just team talk.
England’s blind football set-up gets about £400,000 from the FA, but the players are unpaid amateurs.
The science
Dave Clarke’s been blind since birth. It hasn’t stopped him becoming a senior partner at Clydesdale Bank as well as a husband, father, England captain and Beijing paralympian.
He is featuring in a Channel 4 documentary to celebrate two years until the Paralympics. In it, a neuroscientist scans Mr Clarke’s brain to analyse how it processes what he hears.
At first, only the hearing part of the brain lights up, but then startlingly the sight part begins to respond to sound, just as a sighted person would react to something they see.
This World Cup is not exactly on a level playing field for the English players – while Brazil and Argentina’s players are fully professional, this sport’s only been given FA money in the last 10 years.
