Second Edition of the North East Blind Football Tournament

The Second Edition of the North East Blind Football Tournament organised by the Indian Blind Football Federation (IBFF) was held at Montfort Centre of Education Tura, Meghalaya for the first time from 27th to 30th Jan 2018. The event saw 75 participants and teams from across the region including Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya and invited teams from Kolkata, Delhi and the IBFF academy Kochi participate at the annual event. The newly formed combined team of North East Sowers Blind Football Club a mixed team of players from across the region emerging as winners beating Delhi in the finals held on 30th Jan'18. The pulsating final witnessed some of the best Indian blind footballers on show with the title being decided through a penalty shootout after both teams was tied goalless during the regulation 40 minutes. Dominic Nido turned up to smash in the decisive penalty shot giving the title to the team that played consistently good blind football throughout the Tournament.

Gabriel Nongrum from Shillong, an India international and member of the the blind football academy in Kochi, won the golden boot with a total tally of 10 goals including a hat trick in one of the league games. Sujith P S from the academy team won the best Goalkeeper award while Prakash from Montfort Tura won the emerging new player award. Dr Raghavendra IPS, SP West Garo Hills was the chief guest for the closing ceremony who along with Bro K.J.Jose Director Montfort Tura gave away the prizes.

The Tournament also saw the first women referees from Tura, Meghalaya officiate at an official blind football game in India along with Mr Loo WK referee from Malaysia and Indian referee coordinator Manjith Gokulan. The IBFF Sporting Director and Coach, Sunil J Mathew was present to offer training and scout for new talents for the national academy and prospects to represent the country in the future.