The International Blind Football Foundation (IBF Foundation) has released details of a new grant scheme to provide blind footballs and eyemasks free of charge to teams, national federations and others.

The IBF Foundation Let´s Play! Grant Programme aims to support organizations working in blind football all around the world and that would like to start playing blind football. It will donate the equipment these organisations need to kick off or develop their blind football programmes. IBF Foundation opened the call for proposals earlier today and the deadline to present applications is Monday February 15th, 2021.

According to the Foundation, the following types of organisations are eligible to participate in this call for project proposals:

• Blind football teams/clubs;
• Schools for blind people;
• Organizations of and for visually impaired people;
• National Blind Sports Federations (NFs);
• National Paralympic Committees (NPCs);
• National Football Associations;
• NGOs.

The Foundation will prioritise projects focussing on youth development (male and female, under 23) and women’s blind football, and the key performance factors to be reviewed when looking at applications are (i) previous experience with blind football, (ii) age and gender of the beneficiaries, (iii) financial situation of the organization and (iv) expected results.

Organizations can apply for up to 20 balls, 20 non-official eyemasks and up to 10 IBSA-approved eyemasks per national team.

The call for project proposals is open from Monday January 25th, 2021 at 9 am (JST) until Monday February 15th, 2021 at 9 am (JST). Successful applicants will be informed of the results of the selection process no later than Tuesday February 23rd, 2021 at 9 am (JST).

The equipment will be purchased by April 30th, 2021 and delivered as soon as possible thereafter.

For more information on the grant programme visit the IBF Foundation web site.