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Football News

April 2010

The FAI have pledged continuous support to elite football and to establishing recreational soccer for Blind and visually impaired players across the country. They have started by booking the first venues and will continue to promote these events elsewhere also.

In August, during is a mainstream summer soccer camp in Kildare Town there will be a section solely for fully blind kids. Warren McDonald of IBS will be coaching on this camp along with other official FAI coaches. The camp is running from Monday 2nd - Friday 6th, 10.30am - 3pm. You can book via www.fai.ie and state the player is blind and refer to this camp.

Note: This camp is solely for male and female B1 (fully blind) players only. If visually impaired children would like to take part in other camps they can make this known to the FAI or contact us in IBS for further advice.

Football in County Cork

Adult soccer for B1 (Blind players) only will run fortnightly in Ballincollig Co Cork. The venue is Supernova, location and directions can be found at http://www.supernova.ie/location.html The times will be 7pm to 8pm.

The dates agreed so far will be June 16th + 30th, July 14th + 28th, Aug 11th + 25th, Sept 8th + 22nd, Oct 6th + 20th, Nov 3rd +17th and Dec 1st +15th. The cost for participants will help towards the cost of venue hire but will be nominal.

Childrens football will take place in the Quality Hotel in Youghal, east Cork. The sessions are primarily for blind kids only at present. The sessions will be 5 - 6pm. The dates will be May 10th + 24th, June 7th +21st, July 5th +19th, Aug 16th + 30th, Sept 13th + 27th, Oct 11th + 25th. Nov 8th + 22nd and Dec 6th.

FAI Summer Football Camps

In addition there will be a football camp run by the FAI in Kildare Town between Aug 2nd and 6th exclusively for blind (B1) kids (male or female, aged 7 -14yrs). Anyone interested in taking part in this camp should book and pay via www.fai.ie website

Football Fundraiser

The Irish B2/3 Futsal team is planning to break the World Record for the longest game of Futsal in the world. The record stands at 32 hours 20 minutes, and the plan is to play for 40 hours in total using 2 teams of 12 players each. This will take place from 7pm Friday 30th April – 11am Sunday 2nd May at Ballymun Arena. An Official Guinness Adjudicator will also be present throughout the record attempt.

Alpha FC will play the Futsal League between April and October 2010

B1 football began in Dundalk in January . If you would like to take part please contact James Barry, SIDO on 046 9067337 or jbarry@meathcoco.ie

For further information in relation to football activities please contact Robert Moore on rmooreibs@o2.ie or Warren McDonnell on batfinkmcd@yahoo.co.uk

Soccer at DCU for Visually Impaired

This is planned to begin on Thursday 15th April and every Thursday evening thereafter for an initial period of 6 weeks. Session time initially is 5pm - 7pm in DCU and is open to all ages both male and female. There is scope for holding further sessions if well supported. There is a €2 charge per session.

Keep an eye out for the next venue to be added – possibly in the west.

World Championships for B1 Football in UK

Warren McDonald and another FAI coach will be attending the B1 World Championships in Hereford, England in August. They have been invited to attend training sessions with other countries in order to learn their drills and improve their skills. This is a big invite for IBS and bodes well for B1 soccer in the future.