Blind Footballer Explains How Blind Football Works

um I broke two of my fingers chipped my tooth on both sides and got a black eye [Music] Yeah you mentioned you played blind football yes you play for the development team for Brighton is that right or I have moved up now into the first team oh God destroys love it it wasn't there's only like five players in the development team so I wasn't too hot how'd that come about then so so right so I did a bit of research on this last night correct me if I'm wrong blind football's five aside yep and um which obviously just one goalkeeper for outfield players do those Outfield players have positions then yeah yeah we stick to formations so you can have like a 2-2 yeah um or a one two one which like a diamond yeah two one one Whatever really you can think of what position are you uh left back normally so the back back left of that bottom two right or if we're playing like a one two one I'll move to the the background okay cool and then how did it come about then um playing for Brighton um so it came through Tick Tock actually which is one of the luckiest things I've had through social media actually one of the best opportunities one of the players saw my tick tocks was like I was talking about football and he was like oh maybe maybe you'd like to give it a go we're always scouting for new players because as you can imagine the talent pool is not massive um so I got a message from a player who literally lived about 20 minutes away just by chance he was he's one of the best players for England and he said just come get the guy with me come have a little training session see how you get on you can get some content as well yeah brilliant I'm not going to turn that down um and yeah I was rubbish and I'm like I'm not sure I was like I'm genuinely absolutely shocking and um I wasn't gonna go back I was like oh that's rubbish and like it blew my mind how good he was it was actually incredible I'm never gonna be able to do that um so I was like yeah it was good got some content whatever and I just went back for some reason um I think I missed football yeah let's just try again and something clicked and it just worked a lot better I still wasn't great don't get me wrong like I wasn't messy maybe like a Peter Odom do you know what I mean but like it was better it was progress yeah and when I see progress I get like hooked to it yeah so yeah I just kept going back and then was introduced over to Brighton which was the team he kind of plays for um but obviously more focused on England but you know plays for Brighton and yeah I was in the development team played a few matches was scared because it's a scary sport um and you haven't got pushed up I think playing cited football when I was younger helped me develop a lot quicker right like a natural ability to kick a ball like a lot of these players haven't ever seen a ball I don't know how it works how does it bounce how does it move how do you control it that kind of thing so seeing helped a lot um and yeah so now represent England on the 23s in the European League do you quite a lot that's incredible thanks and how long you've been playing sorry less less than a year that's mad isn't it you know that's so good well how many how many teams how many leagues what the systems what's the setup so you've got the main League we call it the Premier League but it's not like licensed by the Premier League I need to pull their thing around the fund it why is it not licensed why is that not something Chuck 15 grand at it and you're telling me the Premier League doesn't have that line about yeah like that's what I don't know maybe do you know what I actually couldn't answer you have to ask them yeah it really baffles me because every time it's shown on whether it's tick tock or TV like the audience is massive and really interested yeah the audience would be there if they showed the league right they just won't do it it's probably their assumption that there won't be an audience there they're just going ah nah no one will watch it so they they don't but it's worth it that's what I'm saying though yeah yeah as it should be yeah I I think it could be a commitment issue as well like yeah we're a league but it's more we're more focused on England that's our like primary goal the league is more kind of like almost practice runs for when you're in England okay so everything really centers around the England team I mean the Premier League's still really high level you get all the England boys playing in it but you know if I can walk into it after a couple of months then obviously you know it's not it might be difficult if you get a few injuries come of fixtures be played and therefore can they be shown on TV and do do you get more injuries because I imagine there's a lot of collisions and stuff like that in one week uh which was one match and one training session um don't train that much apparently um I broke two of my fingers chipped my tooth on both sides and got a black eye in one week oh wow wild I've got like I don't know if it's still there but I've got a little lump on my nose now it's quite bruised earlier in the week I just head-butted some roma player um last weekend and um fought a break when I was that's such a sick sentence so that's a bad boy sentence I head butt some roma player love that can can you explain how blind football works exactly yes so obviously you said it's five side sighted goalkeeper um fully sighted fully sighted right four Outfield players uh you've then got like a guide on the halfway line who's cited and a guide behind the goal you're shooting at and they sort of guide him with thirds that they operate into the goalkeeper's defense and the goal behind the guy's attack um gold behind the guard guide behind the goal right back yeah um and yeah it's just all about communication so the pitch is slightly bigger than your average five aside pitch which means you can get some like ridiculous dribblers going the Brazilians are outrageous at it um and yeah it pretty much runs how a regular football match would other than set pieces are slightly different you take it from like your feet and you start dribbling like a like a kick like a corner kick you would dribble out from a corner right um they used to do back like way back in the day I think um in like cited football they did that's how they are penalties used to be do you remember that oh they had like a run yeah from like the halfway opened up a certain amount of time to school yeah is that similar to how they how set pieces are then but penalties are penalty kicks right they are taking all that but free kicks and Corners are started from a dribble and you can like set your set your goalkeeper can set Defenders up in almost like zonal Mark right place basically is it is it a normal ball or is it one of the balls that clicks um it's got ball bearings inside so it sounds kind of like a baby's rattle so you've got a regular football um and then it's got metal paneling inside of it which is what keeps the ball bearings making noise and then yeah they rattle off of the metal but the metal was so hard on some of the paneling like if you kick that you're gonna like I've bruised my foot so many times metal paneling I'm insane I should have bought one engine yeah I'd love to have seen that I can't I can't imagine why why would they not just get a normal football and put like some ball bearings in that why is it loud enough because you've got so many people shouting at once like giving information you imagine if if I was defending and you were attacking I'd be saying to my like center-back partner like I'm impressionable then you've got things that you have to say when you're going in for a tackle you have to say the word voy to the player with the ball so they know where you are as a Defender boy it translates to like I'm here in Spanish I think okay like a universal word right um and if you don't say that as a fouls you've got to be shouting that you've got to talk to everyone you've got the the guides giving you information you need that ball to be really loud surely surely the technology is there to do some form of like ball with a speaker inside it or something that can consistently play a noise [Laughter] well even flag we literally do get Waka wackered sometimes I can't I cannot imagine how difficult that must be we'll get you playing it we'll get you doing it one day mate I'd love to come and have a go I'd absolutely love it mate whenever you want I'll come down and give it a go it'll be hilarious are the other players blindfolded or is it yeah yeah because obviously there's different levels of blindness so to keep it fair yeah we're all blindfolded so is there is there is there like a blind team and then a partially excited team yeah there are partials actually our partial England team are like one of the best in Europe I think are they've got a silver medal at the I don't know if that's right but silver medal ever Euros recently it's okay I'm second in the final I might have this wrong but I think one of my favorite comedians plays for them I think he might do Josh Pew yes that's quality he's got 100 he's got over 100 caps for him as well yeah he's of course who's the messy of the blind football world uh there was a bloke called ricardino uh he's Brazilian he's just he dribbles like you can see this is such a good name as well Ricardo I'm gonna have it might be able to pop a clip on I'm not sure but Toby said if he's let's say he 100 out of 100 inability right where are you at oh mate do I even make one if I had honestly if I had as much tongue as he had like is that right like even the England boys would probably be like 75 80. some of these Presidio I'm watching it now the ball just sticks to his feet how he does it you can't get near him wow and if you get near him foul yeah he's away from you well he just goes down yeah he goes down or you you have to clip him or else he's gone and is he active is he still playing now I think so yeah yeah but that whole Brazilian team will like that they're just unreal when you're saying stuff like oh he's he's unreal and stuff how do you know he's unreal because he well I haven't played against him um but he just beats for players that I can't you know that would tackle me 100 times out of 100. oh okay all the time and just from their experience like you can hear when a player is good obviously our world isn't sighted but we you know look at his numbers he scores every game yeah um and even the best defenders that we've got you know sometimes can't get near him yeah that makes that makes sense and you you said that the crowd have to be silent so if you score a banger you you know you've scored a banger what is that the sound of the net just like at least sound of a net first yeah sometimes it's hit the side netting and you thought you've got it but obviously like the guide behind the goal is going to react pretty quickly um and it's pretty distinct noise isn't it of any other crowd will obviously so they can make noise after that and after yeah yeah oh okay oh that's unreal