IBSA Football Committee announces qualifier for 2017 European Championships in Berlin
 
At its meeting in Rio, the IBSA Football Committee took a major decision regarding qualification for the 2017 IBSA Blind Football European Championships in Berlin, Germany.
 
Ten teams will compete in Berlin for the European title from August 17th to 27th 2017. The committee agreed that the top eight teams at the 2015 European Championships in Hereford, England, will qualify automatically for Berlin 2017. This means that Turkey, Russia, Spain, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Belgium are assured of a slot at the event.
 
The committee further decided to hold a qualifying tournament to determine which two countries will join the top eight in Berlin. The tournament is open to Poland and Greece, who finished ninth and tenth respectively in Hereford, and any other national team wishing to enter and meeting IBSA’s criteria for participation in sanctioned events.
 
The qualifying tournament will also be the first “IBSA Blind Football European Championships Division 2”.
 
The timelines for applications to host the qualifying event are as follows:
 
Tuesday 15th November – deadline to submit application for IBSA sanction.
 
By Thursday 1st December – IBSA Football Committee announces the winning bid and informs the host country.
 
The committee recommends that the tournament is held in April 2017. Click on the link above to download the IBSA sanction application form. Applications should be sent to Mr Henk van Aller, the IBSA Secretary General, at [email protected].
 
The committee took these decisions in order to give all countries the opportunity to qualify for the European Championships in Berlin, and taking into account the recent strong growth in the number of national blind football teams in Europe.
 
IBSA Football Committee

Caption: poster for the 2017 European Championships in Berlin.