By Tom Degun

April 3 - The International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) have announced that following the success of coaching and refereeing seminars about blind futsal which were recently held in Hungary, the organisation hopes to welcome at least six new countries to its international competitions in the near future.



Futsal, a variant of football played on a smaller playing surface and mainly played indoors, is one of the fastest growing games for blind people in the world and IBSA, in conjunction with UEFA, hosted a three-day clinic last month in the Hungarian capital of Budapest in order to educate more coaches and referees about the game.

The seminars were held at Globall Football Park, a brand-new football complex featuring state-of-the-art training facilities that were opened last year by UEFA President Michel Platini and FIFA President Sepp Blatter.

The three-day courses were conducted by the head coach of the British blind futsal team Tony Larkin along with British international player Keryn Seal and international IBSA-accredited referee Elias Mastoras.

Thirty coaches and 15 referees representing six countries and eleven organisations attended the event where classroom sessions as well as hands-on practical activities were on the agenda.

The countries taking part were hosts Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria while the participating organisations inlcuded the Football Associations of Moldova, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania, the Hungarian Visually Impaired Students Sport Association, blind sports federations from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Moldova and Romania and Masaryk University in the Czech city of Brno.

Each country was given ten adapted footballs for the blind and eyeshades to help them kick-off or further develop their national programmes.

Feedback from those in attendance was positive and every participant returned to their countries to start work on developing local teams and competitions with a view to setting up a national team to take part in international IBSA competitions in the near future.

Blind futsal made its Paralympic debut at the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games where it was won by Brazil.

The South American country went on to retain their title at the Beijing 2008 Games and they are again the favourites to land the gold at London 2012.

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