Football Victoria would like to congratulate the three Victorian players chose to represent The Bilbies at the 2022 IBSA Asia-Pacific Blind Football Championships in Kochi, India from November 9-20.
Internationally the sport is governed by the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) and is an internationally recognised sport played at the Paralympics. It is played outdoors by athletes who are totally blind (B1) on a 40m x 20m pitch with side kickboards and an audible ball.
Bilbies head coach, Igor Negrao was confident in his team’s chances after the second matchday of the National Blind Football Series.
"I believe we have selected a strong squad that will surprise teams at the tournament, and we are excited to be competing at our first Asia-Pacific Championships." Negrao said.
The Bilbies squad:
- Amir Abdi (South Melbourne FC)
- Brendan Spencer (South Melbourne FC)
- Nathan Letts (South Melbourne FC)
- Isaiah Muller (Adelaide Comets FC)
- Nizamuddin Azimi (Olympic FC)
- Shahram Jazan (Olympic FC) Christine Casey (Olympic FC)
- Nathan Meneses (GK)
Staff:
- Simon Briffa (GK) Staff
- Igor Negrao (Coach)
- Pete Nowakowski (Assistant Coach)
- Ankit Singh (Team Manager)
- Bess Hepworth (Goal Guide)
- Stephen Murray (Assistant Coach)
South Melbourne FC Blind Football captain Amir Abdi explained it was a “huge honour” to be named in the squad.
“The future for the sport in Australia is exciting and we will be training hard to achieve a good result in India,” he said.
The team is still searching for sponsors to reduce the cost for individuals to travel to the championships, therefore please get in touch if you are interested in supporting the squad.