gms | German Medical Science

29. Internationaler Kongress der Deutschen Ophthalmochirurgen (DOC)

09.06. - 11.06.2016, Nürnberg

If you hear my “Voy” – take care! On the history of football for the blind (K)

Meeting Abstract

  • Sibylle Scholtz - Universitäts-Augenklinik Heidelberg, IVCRC, Heidelberg
  • Tobias Wrzesinski - Sepp Herberger Foundation, Hennef
  • David Stirton - IBSA Blind Football Development Project Europe, Bonn
  • Ulrich Pfisterer - IBSA Blind Football Development Project Europe, Bonn
  • Frank Krogmann - Universitäts-Augenklinik Heidelberg, IVCRC, Heidelberg
  • Gerd Auffarth - Universitäts-Augenklinik Heidelberg, IVCRC, Heidelberg

29. Internationaler Kongress der Deutschen Ophthalmochirurgen. Nürnberg, 09.-11.06.2016. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2016. DocEPO 4.1

doi: 10.3205/16doc135, urn:nbn:de:0183-16doc1355

Veröffentlicht: 3. Juni 2016

© 2016 Scholtz et al.
Dieser Artikel ist ein Open-Access-Artikel und steht unter den Lizenzbedingungen der Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (Namensnennung). Lizenz-Angaben siehe http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.


Gliederung

Text

Purpose: Football for the blind is quite a new sport: Brazil and Spain were the most prominent pioneer countries in football for blind and partially sighted people. In these two countries the game was already popular in the playgrounds of schools for the blind in the first half of the 20th century. The first blind football tournament took place in Brazil some fifty years later in 1974. Today football for the blind is a sport discipline played in over 60 countries worldwide. This poster will give a brief overview of the basics of this sport and its history.

Methods: Selective literature search in books and journal articles via PubMed, Google Scholar and Google as well as close cooperation with the Sepp-Herberger-Foundation, Germany, and the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA), Germany.

Results: Having its origin in Brazil, blind football was an established sport already in South America, England, Spain and other countries in the 1960s. IBSA took the sport on board in 1995, the first official international championships took place in Paraguay and Spain in 1997. The first World Championships were held in Brazil in 1998. Blind football gained popularity very quickly after these events, the sport made its Paralympic debut in 2004. The ball contains a sound system that enable the blind football player to hear/localize the ball. A pivotal function is assigned to the Spanish word “Voy” which means “I’m coming”. Any player who approaches a player with the ball under control has to shout this word audibly.

Conclusions: Football for the blind is an extraordinary and spectacular sport discipline with ongoing increasing interest. Leagues have existed in countries like Spain for more than 20 years - in Brazil thousands of spectators watch matches - and these special football games are becoming more and more established also in other countries too, e.g. in Germany.