Nigeria will for the first time participate in the International Blind football championship billed to hold in Enugu, South East Nigeria from 22nd November to 2nd December 2019.
A statement by the Local Organizing Committee and made available to Igbere TV disclosed that 11 countries will be in Enugu for the tournament to be hosted by Bina Foundation, a non governmental organization that has taken up the development of blind football in Nigeria.
The participating countries include Cameroon, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Mali, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Niger, Ghana, Libya, Senegal and Nigeria.
The winners of the Enugu tournament will represent Africa in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Enugu based Bina Foundation for People with Special Needs had taken up blind sports and football as one of its projects aimed at rehabilitating and integrating the blind and visually impaired into the society since 2010.
For elevating the sport in Nigeria and Africa, the Para-Athletics Federation of Nigeria, the Paralympic Committee Nigeria and the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development approved Bina Foundation to be the organization in Nigeria to handle blind Sports and blind football.
Consequently, the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) endorsed the Foundation as an Affiliate Member as well as IBSA County Representative in Blind Football in Nigeria.
Bina has thus been designated to sponsor/host the 2019 IBSA Blind Football Africa Championship which has Governor of Enugu State His Excellency Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi as Chief host.
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