When Christine Casey first went to play football a year and half ago, she didn’t have any clue about the beautiful game.
“During my first session, the coach was telling me, ‘you can’t use your hands, you have to dribble with your feet’,” said Casey, who is here for the Asia-Oceania blind football championship, in a chat with The Hindu on Friday.
The 34-year-old Australian has come a long way. She is the only woman in a ‘men’s’ team in Kochi.
“I started training with men because there were no other women. After that, I was invited to the national camps. I’m very lucky that my teammates are extremely supportive and help me to develop my skills,” said the defender.
“I’m excited about having a women’s team in the future...it’s not there yet.” She hopes her presence here will move many more blind women to take up football.
Casey will be making her international debut in football when Australia plays Iran here on Saturday.
However, she is not new to the big stage, she played for the Australian men’s team at the 2017 T20 Blind World Cup in Kochi.
Women’s football will be making its debut in the Blind World Championship in Birmingham next year but Australia does not have a women’s team. What could be the reason?
“I think it’s similar to a lot of places around the world. Sometimes, blind women are a little bit timid. Football is quite physical sometimes, you need to run around, understand where you are, there’s a lot of movement involved and I think many women are nervous to try it,” she said. “I’m working to increase women’s participation in blind sports in Australia.”
While there are not many blind woman footballers back home, even filling up the spots in the Australian men’s team for Kochi was not easy as players had to pay for their India trip. Ten players are allowed in a team (blind football is a fives event) but Australia has just six and is still waiting for its goalkeeper to arrive.
“The selection was...we invited people and everybody who was there is in the team. One goalkeeper said he didn’t have the money, the other goalkeeper is on the way,” said the team’s coach Igor Negrao, a Brazilian who came to Australia to study English a few years ago and now runs a business which helps disabled people.
“Fingers crossed that he’ll be on time. Otherwise, the ‘goal guide’ will be the goalkeeper... but no experience.”
Despite the many challenges, the Australians have their goals in sight.
“The main goal is to be in the Paralympics. If we do well here or at the World Games, we qualify. This is our dream,” said Amir Abbi, the captain.
“We hope playing here will raise the profile of blind football in Australia. In future, we might not need to pay to attend training camps and to come and represent our country. That’s another dream of ours,” said Casey.
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