Blind football team go for Beijing glory

Scary isn't it? Well, not for Great Britain's blind football team, based at the Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford.

The team, including students from Worcester university, has already performed better, relatively speaking, than the Premier League stars we know and love and who make up our beleaguered England squad.

The GB team tasted glory as runners-up against Spain in the European Championships in October 2007, which has only increased their hunger for further success.

Now they will compete against the best in the world in the Paralympic Games in Beijing in September and no one in the team will be satisfied with anything less than a medal.

The team is classed as 'B1' - the players are completely blind rather than simply visually impaired ('B2' and 'B3'). Even so, players all wear eye patches and a blindfold to make sure no one cheats - for which they face not just a red card but a potential ban.

So are the players worried about collisions when they are playing in such a fast-paced game? Apparently not. The players are, quite literally, hard nuts to crack and they don't let breaks, bumps or bruises put them off. The five-a-side game is played on a 22-metre by 42-metre artificial pitch, so runs tend to be in short bursts rather than the break-neck end-to-end sprints you see in 11-a-side football.

Goalkeeper Andy Elleray, 20, the only sighted player on the team (goalkeepers are always sighted in blind football), said they had already carved a "bad boy" reputation for their gritty determination.

Players also have to shout "Voy!" when they close on opponents - the word is an internationally recognised word for "I'm here!" and is designed to prevent nasty collisions.

Players must shout it when they are within a metre of their man - if they don't they may get booked.

But accidents do inevitably happen. One of the GB players, 25-year-old Lee Greatbatch, is even nicknamed "the tank" because of his tendency to plough into the opposition, while Keryn Seal, also 25, is known as the Roy Keane of his team because of his aggressive, no-nonsense style.

Mr Seal, who lost his sight in just two months because of a genetic retinal condition, broke his nose during a collision with another player but he has not let that put him off.

When asked who is the toughest player on the team he said: "We all are. Once you get your first big smash out the way it's a case of whatever'. The more experience you have, the fewer collisions there are. We're going to the Paralympics to win and if we do we will be living off it for the rest of our lives."

Will Norman, 28, who plays up front on the left or right, lost his sight in his late teens because of a genetic retinal condition.

He said: "I got smashed in my first training session by two players and I was just sat there on my backside. It's far more frantic and physical than blind cricket which is maybe why players find it harder and don't want to make that extra effort."

Three of the players - Mr Greatbatch, Mr Seal and captain Ajmal Ahmed - are part of the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme, which provides Government.

They get £12,000 a year each to fund their team and buy any equipment they need.

David Mycock, 38, a former professional footballer at Bolton Wanderers and Rochdale, who coaches the university players, said he plans some demonstrations at Worcestershire schools when the players return from Beijing.

He said: "For me it's a privilege to be in a position of helping a national team in the Paralympic Games. It exceeds many of the things I have achieved in my professional career - I'm working with disadvantaged people who are willing to push and promote themselves.

"Blind people aren't being hidden away - they are valued members of the community. That's becoming more and more apparent now."

For the players, 90 per cent of the game is played in their mind - they must work out fixed points of reference which allow them to orientate themselves with greater ease.

While sound is also used to communicate, it can also be used to confuse and even to intimidate.

Players project their voice to the left when they are moving right - a kind of auditory dummy - to help them run rings around the opposition.

Mr Mycock said: "We're trying to confuse the opposition. If a player is shouting, an opposition player may hold back.

"If a player speaks to an opposition player like a mouse, they're not going to be worried. The players are playing a mental game as much as a physical one."

Instructions also come from the coach on the sideline, the goalkeepers and a verbal coach behind the goal to let them know where the ball is, where their team-mates are and where the opposition players are.

If players speak of a talent beyond the usual skills associated with football - running, dribbling, passing and shooting - it is spatial awareness.

It would seem that a player with a sixth sense about his surroundings may be king. A few players even use echo-location, bouncing clicks and shouts off physical objects like the boards around the pitch to create a 3D image in their mind of the playing field.

Team captain Ajmal, 27, is the veteran of the team, having played 70 games. Mr Ahmed is the team's defensive technician and was born blind.

He said: "We have played in various European championships but the Paralympics is a first for all of us. It's the pinnacle."

• Worcester University is home to one of four blind football league teams in the UK and all the players featured here are in the Great British squad based at Hereford.