A player taking his mark at the training centre in Kochi. (Source: IBFF)
When asked to put on the tracksuit, 20-year-old Sandeep Singh excitedly gets up from his chair, reaches into his bag to take it out and puts it on. It is not a perfect fit, but he is not complaining. For, on the back of that tracksuit are five letters that make up a word every Indian athlete would want on his/her apparel – INDIA.
It was the early days of December, the winter chill was just settling on Vasant Kunj, New Delhi and Singh was with his trainer at the Football Link Futsal Ground. The venue serves as a training camp for visually impaired football players, some of whom are members of the Indian National Blind Football team – Singh has been part of this team since December 2016. “I started playing football after I joined the NIVH,” says Singh, referring to the National Institute for the Visually Handicapped in Dehradun. He says that he and three other players of the Indian team – NIVH alumni – were introduced to football by their coach Naresh Singh Nayal.
“Hum to pahadi ilaake se hai to pehle se hi uchal kood me dilchaspi rakhte hai (Since we’re from the hills, we always had an interest in outdoorsy activities),” says Singh, who was born and brought up in Gairsain, Uttarakhand. He attended a regular school until the eighth standard, before shifting to NIVH – it was when he was 16, that Singh touched a football.
(left) Sandeep Singh in the team India tracksuit, (right) at the training centre in New Delhi
Football has been regulated since the 19th century, but its counterpart for the blind was included in the Paralympics only in 2004. India have never entered a football team in the Paralympics and all tournaments concerning the sport were regulated by the Indian Blind Sports Association, until the Indian Blind Football Federation (IBFF) was formed in September 2016. Just two months later, the Indian Blind Football team including the likes of Sandeep Singh, played Laos and Malaysia in a friendly tournament. Headquartered in Kerala, the IBFF is the brainchild of Sunil J Mathew, a Kochi-based IT professional who has been working with the visually impaired for a number of years. “India is currently ranked no 23 in the world,” he says. According to Mathew, who is also Sporting Director of the Indian team, there is no specific pattern which states follow to provide more players to the team. Therefore, they are currently focussing on scouting talent from states where the sport is popular. A national tournament is also held annually and NIVH Dehradun were the winners of the last edition that was held in May 2017. Mathew says there were 15 teams participating in the 2017 edition across the country.
However, Singh says that since the friendly tournament in 2016, he and his teammates haven’t had the chance to play an international match. The IBFF even tweeted a request for support to fundraise the entry fee for the Asian Championships, held in Kuala Lumpur in December, 2017 – which also acted as the qualifiers for the 2018 World Championships. But there was no happy ending there, and the tournament went by without a team representing Asia’s third largest country.
Sunil J Mathew (centre) with Pankaj Rana (second left) and a few other players. (Source: IBFF)
Had India entered the tournament, they would have needed to reach the semi-finals to qualify for the Paralympics. “There’s still work to do,” says Naresh Singh Nayal, when asked if India could have made it till that stage. In the Indian team, Nayal plays the role of a goal guide, a position that is unique to football for the blind. The goal guide stands behind the opposition goal and, as the name of the position suggests, guides the forwards in the opposition half of the field. Apart from this Nayal is also the coach of national champions NIVH Dehradun.
FC Barcelona had uploaded a video on Youtube, dated September 9, 2016, titled “Can Messi score a penalty kick blindfolded?” It showed Messi and his Barcelona teammates Sergio Roberto, Ivan Rakitic and Sergio Busquets participate in a penalty kick-off with the Spanish blind football team. The Barcelona players had to wear blindfolds. Messi took stance – white blindfold covering his eyes. A goal guide tapped the two goalposts and the bar to specify the dimensions of the goal – Singh’s trainer typically does the same while he practices penalties in the training session. In the video, Messi – Singh’s favourite footballer – takes the kick, and it goes straight to the goalkeeper. At his training session, Sandeep shoots and nestles the ball in the bottom right corner of the net, on his first attempt.