This is how blind football will be played at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris

This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and was translated from Italian.

The 2024 Paralympics in Paris have shown the general public how big, extraordinary and far too often ignored the world of sport for people with disabilities is. One of the disciplines that has attracted the most interest is blind football, more specifically small-sided football B1, in which visually impaired athletes can use exceptional spatial imagination as well as speed, precision and technique.

Like all disciplines practiced by blind or visually impaired people, it is regulated by the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA), founded in Paris in 1981. This is how it works.

B1 small-sided football pitch

A distinction is made between B2/3 small-sided football, in which visually impaired people also play, and B1 football, in which most players are completely blind: only the latter is played at the Paralympics. B1 football is played on a rectangular field that has the same standard as small-sided football/futsal (40 meters long and 20 meters wide). There are 1 to 1.3 meter high boards along the field to prevent the ball from leaving the field.

player

Each team consists of four movement players (all blind and wearing masks) and a goalkeeper (sighted or visually impaired) who must stay in his own 2-meter-deep area but can give instructions to his teammates when defending. When attacking, however, the movement players receive instructions from an attack companion who is sighted and is behind the opponent's goal. When the ball is in midfield, the coach can give instructions to his team. Unlike traditional soccer, there is no offside penalty, which keeps the game moving along quickly.

The ball and the silence

It is important that no one speaks during the game, except for the goalkeeper, the offensive leader or the coach giving instructions. This is partly because the ball itself is equipped with rattles sewn between the inner tube and the outer cover, allowing blind players to imagine the ball's location through sound suggestions. Spectators are asked to maintain strict silence so as not to disturb players who have to rely on their hearing, for example when one of the players signals to the others that he is performing an action on an opponent. The crowd is only allowed to cheer after goals.

Match length

Each B1 small-sided football game is divided into two halves of 20 minutes each with a break of up to 10 minutes in between.

The history of sport

The first blind football competitions on a small-sided level seem to have taken place in South America, with Brazil being the pioneer: the first championship of this discipline was held in that country in 1980, and since the sport became a Paralympic discipline, Brazil has won the gold medal every time. A few years later, the sport spread to Europe, and the first European Championship was held in Spain in 1986. Since 2004, i.e. since the Athens Olympic Games, small-sided B1 football has officially been one of the Paralympic disciplines. At the 2024 edition in Paris, the men's tournament will be played on a temporary field under the Eiffel Tower.