Blind football club thrills Enugu residents

ENUGU — ENUGU residents were last week thrilled at Union Secondary School, Awkunanaw Enugu, when visually impaired youths played a novelty football match to herald the inauguration of Bina Blind Football Club.

To the excitement of the players and spectators, the match between the Lemon Jersey team and Orange Jersey team ended 2-1 in favour of Lemon Jersey.

The spectators held their breath wondering how the blind would play football but in the end, it was all thrills and spills.

Coach of the football club, Chidi Afamefuna, said it was not easy to bring the visually impaired people together and organise them as a team.

Afamefuna said that although blind game was not common in the country, they were able to get the rules and regulations of it through watching the game during the Olympic Games as well as through frequent viewing and browsing on the internet.

He said that the technique of the game was to place the ball in between the two legs; listen to its sound and follow it.

Reacting to the development, the Archbishop of the Anglican Communion, Enugu Province, Dr. Emmanuel Chukwuma who watched the game urged the Nigerian Football Federation, NFF, to recognize visually impaired football as one of the sports in the country.

The cleric said the sports will allow the physically challenged persons have self-esteem in the society.

“Blind football is one of the sports played in the Olympics which Nigeria do not have representatives; I believe that with the introduction of Bina Blind Football Club as one of its kind in the country, Nigeria would participate in the next Olympics,” he said.

Earlier in her speech, the President and Founder of Bina Foundation, Lady Ifeoma Atuegwu, had said that the foundation was engaged in the improvement of the lives of special needs persons.

She said the foundation however, realized the importance of sports to human health and decided to engage the visually impaired persons on it to improve their health.

Atuegwu said that the visually impaired persons should be given opportunities in the society to show their talents, especially sports, since it would bring a wide range of benefits, from increased confidence and self-esteem to improved health and sense of belonging.

“Bina foundation has been engaged in the improvement of lives of special needs persons through the provision of free medicals, charitable outreach, skill acquisition training and many more but decided to put more weight, resources and energy towards the blind and visually impaired because they deserved to be given opportunity,” said Atuegwu.

“In February this year, the foundation admitted about 200 persons with different disabilities and special needs for its 2017 skills acquisition training as part of its efforts to alleviate the pains of the poor and needy as had been the case since 2010.

“It doesn’t matter what your challenges are. We will empower you at the end of the one year training; we will give you tools to succeed in life. Not only will you employ yourself but you will also employ others,” she added.

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