We explain the rules of blind football to you

Present at the Paralympic Games since Athens in 2004, blind football, reserved for visually impaired athletes, has many similarities with football.

The blind football competitions begin on Sunday, September 1, at the 2024 Paralympic Games. While it is similar in many ways to traditional football, blind football also has many differences. Franceinfo: sport takes a look at the rules.

What is the goal?

It’s the same as in football, scoring more goals than your opponent.

How does a meeting take place?

Blind football, currently exclusively male, is played between two teams of five players. The four field players have a visual impairment and wear an opaque headband to equalize the situations. The goalkeeper, who does not necessarily have a visual impairment, plays without a mask. As in goalball, bells are inserted into the ball and allow the players to move. The public must therefore make no noise between stoppages in play.

The field is the same dimensions as in futsal or handball (40 m x 20 m), with barriers on the sides to prevent the ball from escaping. The goal itself is the same size as that of field hockey (3.6 mx 2.4 m). Matches are played in two periods of fifteen minutes.

What are the specific rules?

On the field, players have guides who can direct them. There are six of them, three per team. In the center of the field, this role of guide is assigned to the coach, in defense, it falls to the goalkeeper. Finally, an offensive guide is positioned behind each opposing goal to direct the attackers.

In order for a defender to move towards the ball carrier, he must signal by saying “see“out loud”every two or three seconds” specifies to franceinfo, Rémi Garranger, senior project manager of technical operations for blind football for Paris 2024.

Another specific feature is that during each half, from the fifth foul committed by players from the same team, a double penalty is whistled. It offers the opposing team a penalty shot at 8 m from the goal.