6 hours Ago By [email protected] (Tom Victor)
Just before Christmas, at Tottenham Hotspur's training ground, young football fans and their families gathered for a special football session. The event, held by charity Bloomsbury Football , was a chance for the youngsters to get a taste of blind football - something which comes with obstacles even for those especially keen on taking part. As with a number of forms of disability football, there are elements which block participation in a way that simply isn't as true of the mainstream game.
In its recently-released four-year strategy, the Football Association laid out its plans for para-football, which included blind and partially-sighted football among other formate. The focus there was on the grassroots game, and making more people aware of the opportunities out there. It's an important time for the sport, and Mirror Football has spoken to some senior figures involved in bringing it to a wider audience.
England hosted the IBSA Men's World Blind Football Championship in 2023, with the team going out in the groups, but there have been concerted efforts to get more young people involved. "[It's about] how we can bridge that gap between young people in particular, or children, with a disability or an impairment or a challenge, accessing football but also knowing that just like the people that they watch on television," says Azeem Amir, part of the England men's international side. "Be it the mens or women's squads, one day they could be a lioness who's hearing impaired, wearing the shirt.
it's just that awareness, really. " The FA are great but if it wasn't for the likes of Bloomsbury to be that vehicle in between - to do the outreach, to put the sessions on, to upskill the coaches - they're a great vehicle to allow these young people to actually access a hub. Because there's not a lot going on in the country in general but especially in london.
"I do think it's a common theme across the country in general, with the lack of awareness and opportunity, but people are trying. To be honest a lot of it comes from a personal link, if there's a teacher or a coach or a club that does active outreach and finds these pathways for young people. That's how it grows, and it gives me a great feeling knowing that, like i said, football's not promised but if i can make the most of whilst im playing just to inspire other people to play, because it changed my life and could change a lot of other people's.
" Share your thoughts on the growth of blind football in the comments section Azeem is also a founder of Learn with ESS, an initiative which, in its own words, 'aims to challenge individual and societal perceptions surrounding disabilities' He was born with a visual impairment, and has first-hand experience of the challenges which those with different life experiences might not have considered. "I think it's just understanding the demographic of individuals and families with disabilities, the challenges that come around transport, getting to places," he adds. "Let's say in the sphere we're talking in, if a young person is visually impaired there's a chance their parents or other family members might be visually impaired, so confidence around accessing publlic transport, they might not be able to drive.
"Everyone else in mainstream football just gets in the car and gets the kids in the back and they go and play up the road at their Saturday league or Sunday league club, but for someone who's visually impaired or has a wider disability, a lot of families and individuals are travelling an hour plus just to be able to access a recreational football session. So it's barriers lilke that that people don't necessarily think about, but once they are there [it helps], having that network, knowing you're not the only one person with a disability and football brings them together." It's not just those with disabilities or visual impairments who are able to benefit from the sessions.
In competitive blind football, teams use fully-sighted goalkeepers, and in England's case that includes Owen Locke. Owen was brought into the England programme at the age of 19 having stopped playing football for a few years in his teens. He explains his autism made school a struggle, pushing football into the background, but he revived his love for the game when picking up futsal at college and this led him to blind football.
"For me, school and football were very tied in, because i played for my school and we were quite good," he explains. "But then as education became quite a struggle for myself, football goes on the back burner and you stop playing. "I sort of moved out of my school in North Finchley to go to a school based more around my specific needs, and just stopped playing football really.
The England para path just gave me an amazing opportunity, [to play] an unbelievable sport at the highest level, and get involved with some amazing football players and coaches and strength and conditioning coaches. "But also to just progress my career and actually find a path that works for me and that I'm extremely passionate about. I'm so fortunate to be doing what I love.
" Both Owen and Azeem have recognised that a small community can quickly become a tight-knit one. That applies not just to blind and partially-sighted football, but to para-football in a wider sense as support between different squads grows. "I think that is one of the key things about blind football.
it's inherently quite a small community - there's only x amount of people who are blind, only x amount who play football, x amount of sighted people who are involved in the game," the former notes. "One thing that really took me aback when i got involved was just how tight-knit the community is, even with players from different countries who are playing in opposition. "People are always sharing knowledge and there's such a keen drive to 1) grow the game and 2) just get more people involved in it.
I can only speak personally for myself, as someone who's not even blind, but the character development it gives you is unbelievable. The confidence it gives you to go out into the world and to be present, be at the forefront in your actions and the way you interact with the world. the community side is just remarkable.
"I remember going to the Paralympics to watch it and the stadium is underneath the Eiffel Tower, 12,000 people, sold out, it was unbelievable. And as I'm walking down the street with my mate and my girlfriend, i see a minivan of opposition French players who i played against in the European Blind League, and just going over and greeting them, saying 'how are you', when you're just their supporting your compatriots. That relationship is truly special, it's a great place to be.
" Bloomsbury Football run a number of initiatives, partnering with La Liga to support underprivileged children in the UK and launching specific refugee and asylum seeker programmes . CEO Charlie Hyman already boasts of great relationships with a number of schools, and recognises how events like the one at Tottenham's training ground have helped bring disability football of all kinds to wider audiences. "We launched the (disability football) programme about a couple of years ago now, and it's been incredibly successful," Charlie says.
"We've had support from people like Azeem, who have really helped give us both that credibility but also the expertise we may not have - understanding how best to run the session for children who are blind and visually impaired, which can only really be done by talking to the people who are blind and visually impaired and have that experience and help us "We've got a few locations at the moment but we have organised it by different disabilities to make sure that for example a wheelchair session is very different from a session for children who are visually impaired. So we've organised the groups by that. "One of the themes of the programme is for a child that, say, has Asperger's, for example, if it's mild enough that we think we can work with that child over a number of months and then get them to move into our mainstream programmes then we really want to do that where possible.
But we understand that there are children with disabilities that mean they won't ever be able to participate in the mainstream sessions. so those groups will always run. "Where we can get them to participate in the mainstream sessions, we do, but that might take some work to get them used to being part of the session, listening to the coach, et cetera.
W e've got a full-time dedicated team, now, that works on the disability programme - including full-time coaches. "We do training, internal training, every week. And then we work with amazing people like Azeem to help us with that expert knowledge, and he's actually come down and run some brilliant training sessions for our coaches to help them to run better sessions.
" Blind football has already benefited from the support of England's senior teams. Azeem recognises how the likes of Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham have played their part, while the 2024 England kit launch - featuring members of disability teams as well as those who took part in Euro 2024 - was another big milestone. "We've been very fortunate, and like i said on a personal level being able to use one of the best facilities in the world and the hub of England Football, collaborating and working on different portfolios and projects and different awareness campaigns from Harry Kane to Jude Bellingham and people like that," he says.
"So it's great to just get that exposure, and i think the kit launch was a great example of that. to have a representative from every squad be part of the England kit launch, i think that was a big thing." The event at Tottenham comes off the back of one at Queens Park Rangers' Loftus Road stadium in 2023, and the benefits are being seen already.
Players like Azeem and Owen can speak first-hand about how their lives have benefited from blind football, and the target now is bringing through the next generation. "We see football as that trojan horse, that's how we help them build their confidence, their skills, their wellbeing, all that amazing stuff," Charlie adds. "That only happens if you can make it accessible, if you can make it a brilliant experience.
if you bring together those ingredients that create a positive experience, that leads to those outcomes, of which the coaches are an incredibly important part. "You've got to make it both a really enjoyable experience, one that young people want to come to, but you've also got to remove all the other barriers that exist, often. Travel is a problem, you've got to run these programmes near to people, you've got to improve the cost barrier because it's prohibitively expensive.
so it's a combination of removing the barriers and creating an amazing experience, which is why Bloomsbury exists." Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners.
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