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Blind football to feature at Madrid UEFA Champions Festival

Date: May 31, 2019

Category: Football

IBSA Blind Football will raise awareness about the game and showcase the skills of young players at the UEFA Champions Festival in Madrid, Spain, over the next three days.

The UEFA Champions Festival is in full swing in the Spanish capital on the occasion of the 2018-2019 Champions League Final in the city tomorrow Saturday evening. As a long-standing partner of UEFA and as in previous years, IBSA has been invited to take part in the festival to highlight the fact that football is for all and give visually impaired players the opportunity to teach the public about blind football.

Blind football will feature in two main events at this year’s festival. Later today – 2pm local time – in the beautiful Plaza Mayor, UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin and several famous former professional footballers such as Roberto Carlos, Luis Figo and Cafú will don eyeshades and learn to take a blind football penalty.


Caption: a Special Olympics exhibition on the pitch in the Plaza Mayor yesterday.

On Sunday June 2nd, also at 14:00, young blind footballers from all over Spain will gather to showcase their skills on the Champions pitch in the square. Members of the Spanish Under 23 national team from Madrid, Seville, Cordoba and Lleida will play an exhibition match which will be refereed by two young officials.

Following the exhibition match, spectators will be invited on to the pitch for an interactive session where they can learn to control the ball, dribble, shoot at goal and take a penalty.

This weekend’s events follow similar actions at previous UEFA finals, including the 2015 Champions League final in Berlin (click here to watch video), the 2016 CL final in Milan (click here to watch video), and the Europa League finals in Stockholm and Lyon in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

IBSA Blind Football is able to develop the game in Europe through its Development Project Europe and thanks to support from UEFA. For more information on the IBSA Blind Football Development Project Europe contact [email protected].


Caption: UEFA #EqualGame and Respect logo.
 
 

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