Although the opening ceremony will occur only on Friday the 18th, competition is already on its way on the Bournbrook pitch of the University of Birmingham.

Actually, until August 27th, Birmingham will be the world’s capital of Blind Sports, hosting the 2023 IBSA World Games, where more than one thousand athletes from 10 different sports will play for the titles, with three of them – Goalball, Blind Football and Judo – measuring forces on the Road to Paris 2024.

This was Day 2 of the Blind Football World Championships. The women’s competition started on Monday, and the men’s competition started today. Let’s take a look at the women’s results on both days and standings until now:

Monday, August 14th
Morocco vs Sweden: 1-1
Germany vs Argentina: 0-3
England vs Japan: 0-5
Austria vs India: 0-1

Tuesday, August 15th
Japan vs Sweden: 1-1
England vs Morocco: 0-0

Group A
1st – Japan
2nd – Sweden
3rd – Morocco
4th – England

Group B
1st – India
2nd – Argentina
3rd – Austria
4th – Germany

After the first awesome entrance, Japan, with a five-goal victory against England, had a full break with a tie against Sweden on the second day. The Swedish also had a tie in the first match against Morocco. All of them regarding group A. In terms of group B, only two matches were played on day 1, with the surprise defeat of the European champions, Germany, against Argentina (3-0). India got in on the right foot and won against Austria (1-0).

Gentleman with Paris on sight!

In the men’s competition, Paris 2024 is the ultimate goal in Birmingham. The national teams to reach the podium have their places secured in the next Paralympic Games, although it’s not a closed door for the other teams. This means that the first three national teams are in Paris 2024 if not otherwise qualified, and we still have to wait for the Para Pan American Games 2023, which will take place this November in Santiago de Chile.

On day 1 of the Men’s Blind Football World Championships, groups A and B entered action. Spotlight for the first match, with the Italian national team losing for almost the entire match, they made it tie in the last seconds with a fantastic Paul Yobo goal! Check the results of today and the matches for tomorrow (time in CEST, local time -1):

Tuesday, August 15th
Japan vs Italy: 1-1
Thailand vs Turkiye: 0-0
England vs Germany: 0-1
Argentina vs China:

Wednesday, August 16th
Women’s WC
9.30am – India vs Argentina
10.30am – Germany vs Austria
Men’s WC
1.30pm – Colombia vs Spain
3.30pm – France vs Mali
5.30pm – Iran vs Brazil
7.30pm – Mexico vs Morocco

All the matches can be followed live on the IBSA YouTube channel through the live button on our website.

Photo: Nur Sahira/IBSA