Blind football sets sights on 2024 Paralympics

Participating in the 2024 Paralympics in Paris will be a dream come true for Mazafaru Jaggwe, the chairman of the Uganda Blind Football Association.

The sport for people with eye impairments started in Uganda in June 2021 and will this year start a league.

While training at Makerere University playground, Jaggwe told New Vision Sport that they have a lot of challenges, but he will not rest till he achieves his dream.

“This is a game played by with an impairment. We have challenges of both finance and human resource, but we are determined to achieve our dream of being part of the Olympics,” Jaggwe said.

Blind football is a game played by 10 people, five on each side. However, the goalkeeper is not an impaired person.

During play, a guide stands behind the goalkeeper to guide the players when they are in a better position of shooting at goal.

There are no offside calls while other regulations remain as they are in regular football.

“We are organising a league on October 14 and 15 which is the World Cane Day celebrations,” Jaggwe added.

Muzafaru Jaggwe the chairman of the Uganda Blind Football Association. Photo by Johnson Were

He explained that despite challenges of resources, equipment and facilities, he is determined to expand the sport to schools and higher institutions of learning.

“We use our own resources to buy the eye shades, but we have also submitted our proposals to corporate brands and they are yet to reply to us,” he explained.

“We received 10 balls from the international body and we have distributed some to other people in higher institutions of learning and we are lobbying resources to but some because a ball costs sh250,000,” he said.

Jaggwe explained that they do not have a technical expert to train them, but they go online and read the different materials which they then get the knowledge they use in implementing their strategies.