IBSA Blind Football is travelling to Finland this weekend to help local players and officials with their newly-established blind football programme.

An experienced international coach will work with local players, coaches and referees in training sessions on Saturday and Sunday to boost the Finnish blind football programme in Helsinki, which has been running since just a few months ago.

Among others, the programme is supported by the Football Association of Finland and the Finnish Sports Association of Persons with Disabilities, the IBSA member organisation in the country.

In addition, a stakeholders meeting is planned to bring together all organisations interested in developing blind football in Finland. The aim of the meeting is to provide background information on IBSA’s blind football development activities in Europe and elsewhere, build a strategy for future development in Finland to increase the playing opportunities for local blind and partially sighted players, and identify ways in which the IBSA Football Committee can assist Finland in ensuring their programme is sustainable and successful.

The weekend in Finland comes just a few months after IBSA Football visited neighbouring country Sweden for a similar initiative, demonstrating increased interest in Nordic countries in playing blind football.  

The training weekend is funded by IBSA thanks to support from UEFA, and is part of the ongoing IBSA Blind Football Development Project Europe.

Plans are underway to organise a similar activity on the other side of Europe in Georgia next month.

For more information on the IBSA Blind Football Development Project Europe contact [email protected].