A few seconds before the start of the first match of the French blind football team against him, on Sunday 1Ahem In September in China, the public was reminded in several languages of the instructions to respect silence during the game phases. The two giant screens displayed a “shhhhh” sound.
Among the 11,000 spectators in the Champ-de-Mars stadium and its impressive view of the Eiffel Tower, the French were in the majority. They sang at the top of their lungs The Marseillaise, He shouted loudly: “Let’s go Blues! The fans are here!”A few vuvuzelas blared and feet pounded on the ground in the stands, largely drowning out the voices of the few Chinese fans present. But at first, a religious silence filled the stadium.
In blind football, football for the blind or visually impaired, silence is golden during the phases of the game. A point in common with tennis. It is unique because there are noises on the ground, and a lot of them. And these, the players must hear them in order to play.
“We are football fans, we wanted to discover this sport. So, we just checked some rules before coming, so we wouldn’t get completely lost.” said Pierre (who did not want to give his name). He and his group of friends cite as an example the ball containing bells that allow the four players, with their eyes hidden by an opaque blindfold for reasons of fairness, to spot it.
The role of the goalkeeper
“5 meters, forward, 4 meters, back, forward, right…”The goalkeeper’s role, the only sighted player on the team, is obviously to stop the opposing team’s goals but also to give instructions in the defensive zone. Two guides are located in the centre of the field and behind the goalkeepers’ cages. Suffice it to say that the information must be clear and concise.
“We give them directions so that they have more points of reference and can make decisions because, on the ground, they are completely autonomous,” he said.explained, A few days earlier, Benoît Chevreau de Montlehu, one of the two goalkeepers of the French national team. “Some guides have very different sound intensities than ours”He added. Without a doubt, on Sunday night it was the Chinese guides we heard most of.
In this commotion, there is no need to hear the screams of the players. “See”voy in Spanish, is their keyword. Players use it when they are about to attack the ball. In theory, this helps avoid collisions. In practice, there are many. Communication is crucial, but it boils down to keywords rather than long sentences: “I am moving forward”, “Go”, ” Have “ or even ” lost “ when the ball has been recovered by the opposing team.
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