The International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) Goalball Taskforce has made its first major steps in supporting the growth and improvement of the sport and is now asking for the help of competition organisers to move to its next phase.

In January 2024 IBSA President, Ilgar Rahimov, announced the establishment of the taskforce to focus on making the most of the opportunities and feedback from players, coaches, referees, IBSA members, National Federations and others.

The taskforce began with the sport’s rule and set about inviting comments and ideas from the sport’s community.

The group have been working through all the responses and at their last meeting on 13 March, made a short list of proposals which they would like to test.

IBSA Goalball is now looking for competition organisers of non-sanctioned events to host this testing in some or all the games in their upcoming competitions.

Any organisers who are interested can contact [email protected] to offer their support.

Aurora Zanolin, the Chair of the IBSA Goalball Committee and Taskforce, said: “We received some great feedback from stakeholders on where they would like to see changes to the sport’s rules for many different reasons. They range from making the sport more attractive to spectators to improving the game for players and we are excited about testing they to see if they will work.

“Hosting a game or games for some or all of this important experiment is an opportunity for organisers to help shape the future of goalball. We are keen to hear from organisers of both club or international competitions.”

The Members of the IBSA Goalball Taskforce include athlete representatives Alexandre Almeida and Iida Kauppila, John Potts, Bulent Kimyon and Alexey Baryaev from the IBSA Goalball Committee, coaches’ representatives Miloud Djelaili, Simon Smith, Alessandro Tosin and Francisco Montreal and referees David Tweneboah Kouduah, Claude Degeneas and Reza Dheghan.

As well as rules, the group are also investigating if any changes or improvements are needed to refereeing standards, classification, equipment, broadcast, partnerships and branding amongst others.