Here’s a round-up of the latest news and upcoming events from the world of Blind football:
 

– Belarus Open Football Championships 2014: the championships kick off on June 4th, with teams from Belarus and Russia scheduled to take part.
 
– International tournament: an international tournament was held in Russia from April 20th-22nd involving teams from Belarus, Ukraine, Greece, Romania, Moldova and Transnistria.
 
– Russian National Championships (B1): the first round of the Russian National Blind Football Championships took place in Sochi from March 5th to March 16th. Ten of the twenty teams currently playing in Russia competed in the championships. The second round will be held in the autumn.
 
– Germany vs. Romania: the Romanian national team visited Germany recently for two friendly international games. Sally Wood Lamont, IBSA Europe Chairwoman and President of the Romanian NPC, reports on the weekend:
 
Between 25-27 April 2014 in Dortmund, Germany, the Romanian national futsal team was invited for two friendly matches with German teams from Dortmund. This weekend was an event that was very important because it was their very first real international matches. The Romanian team was represented by:
 
Sorin Lapadatu – Team Manager
Attila Veres – Trainer
Monika Lukacs – Trainer/Referee
Tiberiu Paun – Player
Marian Alexandru Cucu – Player
Calin Marius Harlet – Player
Ovidiu Ioan Garboan – Player
Ionut Anton – Player
Florin Kovacs – Player
Mihai Nistor – Player

 
The German hosts made the Romanian team very welcome and excellent conditions were offered. On Friday afternoon both teams trained together and at 3pm on Saturday afternoon in front of 150+ spectators and also a representative from the Dortmund mayor's office, the first match was played. The final score was 10-0 for the Dortmund team.
 
In the second match on the Sunday morning Romania lost 6-0 but much advice had been given and mistakes corrected in the Romanian players. On Sunday afternoon the Romanian team left with many positive lessons learnt. It was a marvellous opportunity for the Romanian team and we thank Ulrich Pfisterer, the Chief Trainer for blind football in Germany, for his invitation and organisation of this very useful weekend. NPC Romania hope to be able to reciprocate this invitation in 2015 for the German teams.
 
Meanwhile Romania is now preparing hard for the IBSA Euro Challenge Cup in Prague in July.
 
Click here for a video report on the weekend from German television (in German only).
 
– B2/B3 football in Malaysia: A tournament for partially sighted players was held in Selangor on May 4th. The event was organised by Pan-Disability Football Malaysia and the Malaysian Blind Sports Association, and six teams took part.

 
Another B2/B3 football tournament in scheduled for June 14th and 15th. Click here to link up with the Malaysian blind football community on Facebook.
 
– UEFA.direct – IBSA’s development efforts in Europe are highlighted in a feature piece in the April edition of UEFA.direct, UEFA’s official magazine. Click here to read the whole magazine, or on the link above for the article on blind football.
 
– IBSA Euro Challenge Cup 2014: preparations for this major development tournament are progressing smoothly. Six national teams, all new or relatively new to the international stage, will take part in the tournament, which will be held in Prague, Czech Republic, from July 10th-12th.

The deadline for participating teams to submit registration forms is this coming Friday, so more information on the tournament will follow next week.