KOCHI: The six-day All-India Invitational Blind Football Tournament, which commenced at the the Blind School ground at Aluva on Tuesday, will give an opportunity to new players and teams to play and learn the game, said the organisers here on Friday.
The Indian blind football team is ranked 25th in the world. Blind football is a '5-a-side' game played on futsal ground with two sighted goalkeepers.
The tournament was inaugurated by Blind Football brand ambassador actor Shriya Saran. The first game had the home team SRVC Kerala taking on Delhi, and the match ended in a goalless draw. The tournament has brought to the fore some exciting talents from all the teams. Abhimanyu Naskar, who represents India at international events, scored five goals for the CAB Kolkatta team in a league encounter against XCRVC Mumbai on April 28. The event also saw Kerala, the home team which has 3-4 international stars, winning against Voice of the World, Kolkatta, with Indian-International Ananthu Sasikumar scoring a brace.
The eight teams are divided into two pools with two new teams - Vijay Public School-Uttarkashi and a combined team from North East and Bangalore - making their debut at the event.
The top two teams from the pools will go to the semifinal on Saturday, with the winners playing the final on Sunday.
"The KBFF plans to start the first Blind Football Academy in the country, with vocational training that can offer employment and blind football training on an ongoing basis to help develop the national side further," said M C Roy, project director of the Society for Rehabilitation of the Visually Challenged, the organiser of the event.